A Rose by Any Other Name

Pulling up behind Rosalie's car, Emma got out of the sheriff car that she had been driving and walked towards the car. With her flashlight in hand Emma walked towards the car and that was when she noticed that the driver's door was open. “Damn it Rosalie.”

“I take it that she didn't listen and now you have no idea where she is.”

Looking behind her, Emma saw Graham looking around the car. “She has tendency not to listen.”

With his flashlight on, Graham walked over to the side of the road that led into the forest. “She was wearing heels, right?”

“Yeah, why?”

“I think she went into the forest.”

“Good lord,” Emma said. “What in the hell is she thinking?”

Walking over to where Graham was standing, Emma looked at where he had his flashlight pointed. The shoe impressions were made by a pair of high heels. “It doesn't look as if anyone has physically taken her, but why in the world would she just go into the forest?”

“When we find her you can ask her that.”

Walking through the forest, Graham and Emma were following the trail that would lead them to Rosalie. “She's not always like this.”

“Like what?” Graham asked as he used the flashlight to follow the trail in the dark woods of Storybrooke.

“Rosalie. She doesn't usually doesn't do impulsive things like getting out of the car and going into the woods alone.”

“So she'd wait for someone to go with her then?”

“Depends on the person,” Emma said. “I think telling her everything tonight was a mistake. I should have done it alone or done it some other way. Now she's gonna be harder to get to believe.”

“She needs that love.”

“What love?”

“Anything to do with this curse is going to have to be defeated by true love.”

“Finding Rosalie's true love might not be exactly a walk in the park.”

“Like finding her coat?” Graham asked as he picked up the object from the log.

“This just isn't making any sense,” Emma said taking the coat from him. “She's going to freeze out here.”

“We better find her and quickly.” Graham said as they started looking for her again.

Nodding her head, they headed in the direction where the shoe impressions were heading. “So tell me about her. Your friend Rosalie.”

“What do you want to know?” Emma asked.

“Anything that will make tracking her down easier.”

“She was in foster care for most of her life and then she ran away at seventeen. She knows how to hide when she is being followed. When she was younger, her favorite place to hide was in the woods. She told me that she was waiting for her parents to find her. She said they would know where to find her in the woods.”

“Her parents had a strong connection to the woods,” Graham said. “Maybe she has the same connection to them?”

“To the woods?” Emma asked. “I guess it's possible. Never thought I would say that.”

“Didn't think that fairy tales were real?”

“Not until Henry came back into my life.”

“No regrets?” Graham asked as they continued walking.

“Having Henry back in my life?” Emma asked. “None. I'm not the same person that I was when he found me.”

“You've both changed.”

“For the better?”

“Before you came to Storybrooke,” Graham said as he caught Emma's elbow as she nearly fell in the mud. “He wasn't nearly as happy as he is now. And that is because of you, because you stayed. You stayed in Storybrooke and believed in him and believed about the curse.”

“I didn't really believe until recently,” Emma said honestly. “But I'm thankful to have him around still. Oh god, Rose.”

Graham took off running with Emma right behind him. In the ankle deep water was Rosalie, face down. Emma watched as Graham picked her friend up and carried her body out of the water. Once he reached solid ground, he set her body down so that he could feel for a pulse. “She's got a pulse, it's faint, but there.”

Looking down at her face, her make up was ruined. Emma could feel the tears coming as she watched Graham blow air into her lung when he assessed that she wasn't breathing. Biting down gently on her bottom lip, Emma could do nothing but watch. It felt like ages before she heard the coughing as Rosalie spit up water as Graham moved her head sideways so she wouldn't choke on it. Releasing the breath she didn't realize she was holding, Emma looked at her friend. There was an obvious bump on her head and blood in her hair.

“Rose...”

“Em?” Rosalie warily asked before her eyes closed.

“Call the hospital,” Graham told Emma as they headed back to the road with Rosalie in his arms. “She's going to need a doctor.”

Walking through the forest and heading to the road, Emma put her hand into her pocket only to come up empty. That was when she remembered that she dropped it into the cup holder after calling Rosalie. She had sped up in hopes to get to her before anything bad were to happen.

“Get her to the car,” Emma said. “My phone is in my car.”

Without another word, they picked up their pace to get back to the road.

Once they made it to the road, Graham sat in the back of the car with Rosalie while Emma drove with heat on full blast so that her friend could warm up.

Emma watched from the behind the glass doors as Rosalie lay in the hospital bed. She had slipped into a coma after she and Graham got her to the hospital. She was alive, she just wasn't waking up. Emma and Graham were both sheriffs and so he was the one working while she took a break while watching over Rosalie. Every day Emma came in to see if she was any better, but there was no change.

Opening the door, Emma walked over to the seat next to the bed and just watched as her friend, her only true friend that had been with her through so much drama was in a coma and she couldn't do anything to help her. More than anything Emma wanted to help, but what could she do? She wasn't Rosalie's true love so she wouldn't be the one to kiss her and how often did that work more than once?

“I wouldn't lie to you Rose,” Emma said as she took her friend's hand. “I just wish there was some way to make you believe.”

“Hey Emma.” Henry said as he walked into the room with David.

“Hey Henry, David.”

“James.” he said.

“Right, sorry.”

“How is she?”

“No change,” Emma told them as she stood up. “I've tried talking to her, but nothing is working.”

“I think I can help.” Henry said.

“How so?” Emma asked, looking down at him as he held onto his book.

“I was looking at the book and I noticed that there was a spell hidden away.”

Looking into Prince Charming's eyes, Emma was surprised. “A spell? Like voodoo?”

“No,” he said. “A former non believer can show someone who doesn't believe how to believe.”

“I know that you are trying to help, but I'm not sure it will work with her.”

“We have to at least try.”

“We can use all the help we can get.” James said.

Nodding her head, Emma watched as Henry opened the book. “What does this entail?”

“You have to wait until the time is the same. Like at 10:10 or 11:11, and then you have to read these words, but you have to be alone” Henry said.

“She won't wake up suddenly, but she'll get memories that belong to those that loved her enough to give her a chance at life.” James told her.

Looking at the words on the page, Emma nodded her head. “I'm gonna get a cup of coffee. Would you mind staying with her until I get back?”

“Sure.”

Walking out of the room, Emma headed down to the cafeteria to get some coffee. She just had that feeling that she knew it would be a long night. With the nurses and Dr. Whale coming in and out to check on Rosalie, Emma found herself a little lost. She hadn't really adjusted to the fact that all of this was real, she was the daughter of two fairytale characters. Kids dreamed about stuff like this, but Emma was living it. If only she could get Rosalie to believe so that they could get home, to their own time.

Taking a moment, Emma just sat down with her coffee. She knew that Henry wanted to help and he was the one that probably convinced David or James to come and tell her right away. But it was worth a shot, right? What was the worst that could happen, that she wasted her breath on a spell? Looking down at her half gone coffee, Emma went to refill it before heading back to Rosalie's room.

Once she got there, she saw Henry sitting on the end of the bed reading the end of Cinderella's story to Rosalie's sleeping form. “Cinderella, huh?” Emma asked as she set her coffee cup down.

“I was going to read Snow White, but it would be better coming from the people that were there to live it.”

“Alright, but it's a school night and you need to get to bed.”

“Is it alright if I take him to my place?” James asked.

“You'll get him to school on time?” Emma asked.

“Yeah.”

“Go for it and have fun.”

“Bye Emma and good luck.” Henry said as he gave her a hug.

“Bye guys,” Emma said. “Be good Henry.”

When Emma looked at the spell, she shook her head before running her hand through her blonde locks. Looking at the time, that was when she knew that if she was going to do this, then she had better do it now before she started second guessing herself. After reciting the spell, Emma looked down at Rosalie, but nothing changed. She hadn't opened her eyes, nor did she move a mussel. “It was worth a shot.”

Sitting in the chambers of her castle, Queen Aurora placed her hand on her growing stomach. Worry was written across her face as plain as day. Sitting by the window, she looked out at the land below and then as far as her eyes could see. The sun was setting on an already dark day when her husband came into the room.

“You are thinking about it again, aren't you?”

“I cannot help myself Phillip,” Aurora told him as she looked into his eyes. “Our daughter will have no kingdom, she will have no family where she ends up.”

“But she will be safe and she will find Snow's daughter and they will help each other break the curse and then they will come home.”

“But will we survive another attack by Maleficient ?” she asked. “How much more can this kingdom withstand from her? When will enough be enough for her?”

“When you lose that baby in your belly.”

Both of them snapped their heads and looked up to see Charming walking through the doors.

“She wishes for the kingdom to die and everyone living here with it.”

“Yes, she does,” he said, giving her a sad smile. “But it doesn't have to be.”

“What do you speak of friend?” King Phillip asked as he motioned for him to take the seat next across from Aurora.

“You know of the curse that Regina threatened us all at our wedding?” Charming asked them.

“Everyone heard it, James,” Aurora said. “But your child may be her undoing.”

“But not just my child,” he told her. “Yours as well. But not until they are much older.”

“So our daugters will be the saviors of our world?”

“So you are having a girl,” James said with a smile. “What is her name to be?”

“Rosalie.” Aurora said with a smile.

“A beautiful name.”

“But she will not live long with the curse upon us.”

“That is why I have come,” James told them. “Snow will be giving birth to Emma very soon. But we are to send her to another land, one that is not cursed and when Emma is twenty eight she will begin to break the curse.”

“But you mentioned the both of them,” Aurora said. “How do you suppose we help Rosalie?”

“I believe that we may help.”

Looking at the fairies that raised her in hopes to break a curse that would cause her death, Aurora looked at their faces as they entered the room. “You three have done so much for us already, how can I ask more of you?”

“You need not ask,” Flora said as the approached. “This world will need her.”

“She is of your blood,” Fauna reminded them. “Royal blood. We do not wish for your blood line to end here on this day.”

“What do you plan to do?” Phillip asked.

“We will wait till she is born and then we shall bestow a single gift upon her.” Merryweather said.

“A gift that will take all three of us to perform.” Fauna said.

“What gift?” Aurora asked.

“The gift she will receive is to go to a new world,” Flora said. “That way she will be safe.”

“But do not fret.” Fauna said.

“The reason it shall take three fairies to cast this spell is because when she believes she is who we tell her, then along with Snow White's daughter, they will restore the happily endings.”

“Once they both believe that is when we shall return home.”

“Not all of us will last that long,” Phillip stated. “Rosalie must be sent to safety, but Charming, if you and Snow White return while we do not, take care of Rosalie for us.”

“She may be a grown woman by this time,” Aurora said, tears threatening to fall from her eyes. “But if we do not return, our kingdom will have been lost and she will need a home.”

“We will protect her like she is our own daughter.” Charming vowed.

“She deserves to be loved.” Aurora stated.

“She will be loved like a princess should be.”

Watching her best friend sleep, Emma let out a sigh. “I wish I knew what was happening with you Rosalie.”