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Only The Beginning

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IT WAS ALL HER FAULT. If she had just given him another chance, this wouldn't have happened and Melody knew that. That sinking feeling in her chest when she saw the sight at the town line was unbearable.

Belle was looking around confused while Gold tried to comfort her, Hook was bloody, bruised, and unconscious, lying on the ground, and there was an outsider that had crashed in a boulder, their window smashed.

David got out of the cruiser, followed by Mary Margaret, Emma, and Melody, and ran toward Gold and Belle. Emma got out her radio and called for help.

"I'm at the town line. Two people down, maybe three. There's a car - pretty banged up with Pennsylvania plates," Emma said through the radio.

Melody spotted Hook and without thinking, she ran over. Her eyes filled with angry tears. Not at him, but at herself.

"Hook! I'm sorry-"

He chuckled but groaned from the pain. "I thought you didn't believe in me?"

"I'm sorry, I know it's my fault-"

Hook managed a smile.

"It's not your fault, love."

"What's going on?" Melody overheard David ask Gold.

She turned her head to see Gold looking completely and utterly shocked. Only then did she notice Belle not too far, looking scared. Then she saw where she was. Melody looked back at Hook.

"You shot her over the line!?" she yelled.

"She crossed over the line. She doesn't remember," Gold told David.

Hook didn't look at all guilty for his action and that made Melody get angrier. Emma ran over to them and leaned down.

"Hey, beautiful. Here, I didn't think you'd notice," Hook smirked to Emma.

The blonde ignored him and she pushed on his ribs. Hook yelled in pain and Melody sighed, wiping her tears, trying to calm herself before she lit something on fire.

"His ribs are broken," she observed, looking at his other wounds.

"Oh, that must be why it hurts when I laugh." Hook laughed and then groaned. But his victorious smirk stayed in place. "Did you see his face? His one true love, gone in an instant! Just like Milah, crocodile! When you took her from me..."

"But you took her first," Gold protested with an angry yell.

Then he lunged at Hook, digging his cane into his neck.

"Gold, are you insane?!" Melody screamed, pushing her brother back.

"Yes, I am!"

"You can't do that!" David yelled, pulling Gold back.

"I can if you let me go."

"You don't want her to see that," Emma said, referring Belle.

"I'm a stranger to her," Gold pointed out.

"Murder is a bad first impression."

"What would Belle want you to do?" Melody asked quietly.

Her brother seemed to listen and the sirens of the ambulance sounded. David pulled Gold off of Hook and David yelled at the paramedics.

"Over here!"

The paramedics head toward Hook first, but Emma directed their attention to the driver of the car instead.

"No! Him! Take care of him. He can wait."

Melody looked at Hook and saw his eyes start to close.

"Hey!" Melody yelled at him. "You are not going to die on me now!"

She slapped him and the pirate yelped. Mary Margaret heard what Emma said and processed it before blinking confusedly.

"What?"

"There's someone in there," Emma explained, pointing to the car by the boulder. "Melody, stay with Hook. I'll be right back."

Melody nodded and then slapped Hook again.

"Bloody hell! Quit slapping me!" Hook exclaimed.

"Well it's keeping you awake isn't it," Melody retorted.

The paramedics got the guy out of his car and put him on a stretcher, quickly putting him in the car.

"Do you know this guy?" Emma asked Mary Margaret.

"I've never seen him before," Mary Margaret revealed.

"That's because he drove into town," David explained.

"From the outside?"

"Looks like the world just came to Storybrooke," Melody chimed in.

And something told the teen that this was only just the beginning.

---

Everyone was in panic as the outsider along with Hook was wheeled into the hospital. They were all worried due to the fact someone from the outside found StoryBrooke.

"I don't know what's going on," Belle said quietly as she was rolled in a stretcher.

They all looked at her with sympathy

"Everything's going to be fine," Melody to her softly.

The fellow brunette didn't loo convinced and a paramedic went over to one of the nurses.

"Car versus pedestrian. Chest trauma from the wheel. Pedestrian's got contusions, broken ribs," he listed.

"Go to X-ray. Pedestrian first," the nurse instructed.

"Hide him," Melody directed.

"What?"

"Find a room and hide him."

Gold walked in and looked around with panic. Then his eyes landed on Belle and he walked forward.

"Belle. What's going on?"

"Get him out of here!" David said.

"Well, what's happening? Belle!"

A few people held him back as the former bookworm was wheeled off.

"I'd like to know that myself," Leroy spoke up.

Melody glared at him. "Shut it, Leroy."

The dwarf was about to snap back when Dr. Whale walked in.

"Everybody, calm down! Mr. Gold. Everything will be fine. She's in good hands here. I promise."

---

"Where's Cora?" Emma asked.

Melody sat next to the blonde while they interrogated Hook. She had an amused smirk on her face and Hook still laid smug, trying to cover up his pain.

"What?" he asked, feigning confusion.

He went to move his arm and realized he couldn't move. He pulled again and then smirked at Emma.

"Again? Damn, that hurts."

"Told you - cracked a few ribs," Melody said smirking.

"Where's Cora?" Emma asked again.

"You look good, I must say. All 'where's Cora?' in a commanding voice. Chills," Hook smirked.

Melody rolled her eyes and pushed his ribs, making him wince.

"I have no idea where Cora is. She has her own agenda. Let's talk about something I am interested in - my hook. May I have it back?" he asked.

"You're awfully chipper for a guy who just failed to kill his enemy, then got hit by a car," Emma pointed out.

"Well, my ribs may be broken, but... Everything else is still intact. Which is more than can be said for other bad days I've had. Plus, I did some quality damage to my foe."

"You hurt Belle," Melody reminded.

The teen knew Hook choose between Belle and her, but she never wished Belle any pain and she wished it could've been her. She could've finally been free from all of her pain. Deep down she wanted to leave the hospital and cross the town line, but she knew she had to be there for her family. Melody didn't want to be selfish.

"I hurt his heart. Belle's just where he keeps it. He killed my love. I know the feeling," Hook explained.

"Keep smiling, buddy. You're chained down, he's on his feet, immortal, has magic, and you hurt his girl. If I were to pick dead guy of the year? I'd pick you," Emma said. Emma got up. "Come on, kid."

"I think I'm going to stay for a little bit. I'll meet you out there in a minute." The blonde narrowed her eyes at Hook before nodding to the teen and exiting. Melody sighed and then turned back to Hook. "You're an idiot you know that?"

Hook managed a small smile at her. "I know."

"You could've chosen me instead of Belle. I would've been an easier target."

"Why would I hurt you?"

"Why wouldn't you? Why even care about me at all?"

There was a moment of silence before Hook sat up the best he could.

"You remind me of my brother. Smart yet reckless." Melody smiled slightly. "I can see that you aren't truly happy. Whatever happened in your past cut deep and the wounds haven't properly healed. My wounds haven't healed either. But for the first time, I feel the smallest glint of happiness. You, Melody, sparked that happiness. I may just be a pirate, but I have a heart. We both know what it's like to be abandoned and to feel alone." He paused and the smiled once more. "I would never harm you in any way. And I'll always protect you. Because I know sometime in the future, you will be truly happy. And you deserve that happiness."

Melody didn't even realize she was crying until Hook finished his speech. She sniffled and wiped her tears. The teen threw her arms around Hook's neck and the pirate groaned.

"Careful, love," he chuckled.

Melody laughed slightly. "Sorry." She pulled away and wiped her tears again.

"You better go before Swan comes back in here a pulls you out."

Melody laughed again and nodded, getting up.

"Thank you, Hook."

She walked to the door and was about to open it when Hook called out to her.

"Killian. Call me Killian."

Melody turned back to him and smiled.

"Thank you, Killian."

---

"-I'll keep looking, but I think what we have here is a well-documented, real-life ordinary Joe. Or Greg," Melody heard when she entered the waiting room where some of the StoryBrooke residences were.

"So, whatever's kept random people from stumbling into Storybrooke for the last twenty-eight years is gone?" Melody spoke up.

Everyone turned to her and David nodded in agreement.

"Anyone could drive in. Why are my instincts telling me that's a bad thing?" David said sarcastically.

"Cause you've seen E.T., or Splash, or any other movie where they find something magical and study it to death. Think what'd they do to a werewolf," Leroy mentioned.

"Oh, and his friends and family? They're going to come looking for him soon," Mary Margaret added.

"Let's hope he has none," Melody said sighing.

"Leroy's right. We don't need outsiders here," David agreed.

"Hook says he doesn't know where Cora is, and god knows what she's going to do. With other people coming here, that's not going to be good for anyone," Emma said.

"We need to find my mom - tell her we know she was framed," Melody put in.

"I've been tracking her. No luck. She's gone underground," Ruby told her.

Melody then bit her lip and shook her head. It was a surprise when she found out Archie wasn't actually dead and that Cora just kidnapped him. But she was glad her mother didn't have any part of it. The only problem was that Cora might get to her first.

"But what if Cora finds her first?" the teen expressed.

"Melody's right, I don't want to think about the damage those two would do together." Mary Margaret shook her head as she continued. "This could not have come at a worse time.

"It's okay. The guy's being patched up right now. He'll probably be on his way home by morning," Ruby told her.

Dr. Whale walked in and sighed.

"Not quite. He's bleeding into his chest cavity. It's not a full flood, you know. But, pretty soon, he'll be drowning in his own blood".

Melody's nose went up in disgust. "Lovely." The thought of someone drowning in their own blood sickened her and made her stomach curl.

"So make it stop. Aren't you a doctor?" Emma snapped.

Dr. Whale didn't answer her and instead approached Gold who was walking down the stairs.

"Gold. You fixed me. Now fix him. It will take you seconds and cost you nothing," Whale said.

"No," Gold denied.

"No? Just... No?"

"I owe you nothing, Whale. I owe none of you anything. And some of you, owe me. So, yeah, just... No. Oh, and point of interest - the driver? He saw me throwing some magic. So, instead of trying to get him out of here, you better be hoping he dies. Because if he doesn't, he's going to be driving tour buses up and down the main street. So glad I don't give a damn."

Then he walked out without another word and everyone stood shocked. Dr. Whale sighed and turned to them.

"Look... Letting him die is easy. I can do that if that's what you decide."

"Let's take this somewhere private," Emma suggested.

The group entered a small examination room to talk. And they closed the door, making sure no one was eavesdropping.

"It's not really murdering if we let him succumb to his injuries," Whale said.

Melody scoffed and crossed her arms over her chest. "I'm pretty sure it is."

"Of course we save him," Mary Margaret spoke.

"Obviously," Emma and David agreed.

"Well..." Leroy spoke up.

Everyone turned him. Melody glared.

"Leroy!" Mary Margaret scolded.

"We got to think it through. If we save him and kill the whole town, is that really better?" Leroy questioned

"So we have to choose between our lives and his," Ruby clarified.

"We can worry about the town later," David said.

"Which doesn't mean we should abandon him," Melody pointed out.

"I know, but let's worry about Storybrooke after we save a life. Dr. Whale, prep for surgery."

Whale nodded and walked away. Everyone looked at one another and Mary Margaret spoke what everyone was thinking.

"Anyone else notice he's drunk off his ass?"

Melody raised her hand. "I did."

Suddenly, the outsider's phone began to ring. They all looked over and Emma sighed.

"Someone's looking for Greg. How long before they come here?" Emma asked as they all looked at his phone.

"Something tells me it won't be long," Melody replied.

Everyone exchanged glances. Knowing the teen was indeed right.

---

The phone rang again and everyone continued to stare at it. The screen lit up with the same name "Her".

"The same person again," Leroy observed.

"'Her'. Cute," Melody commented, smiling sarcastically.

"Probably a girlfriend," David guessed.

"We could answer it - just let her know he's okay," Mary Margaret suggested.

"He's not okay," Emma pointed out.

"Well he's alive, isn't he? We could just let her know," Melody said.

"The police could trace it here instantly," David reminded them.

"She can activate the find your phone thing without us picking it up at all," Emma explained.

Melody winced and nodded, knowing the blonde was right. "Oh, yeah..."

Then the phone stopped vibrating and there was a tense silence before Leroy broke it.

"That settles that."

"I feel like I'm suffocating from nerves. Is the surgery over?" Melody asked.

Emma looked around and sighed. "I think it takes-"

Just before she could finish, David spotted a doctor and went over to him.

"Whoa. Whoa. Wait. Wait. Any news?" David asked.

"No. I was just looking for the doctor," the man explained.

Everyone followed and Melody raised an eyebrow.

"He's not in the OR?" she said.

"He never came in."

"Then page him."

"He was not looking so good earlier," David explained.

The man got out his phone and paged Dr. Whale. A beeping sound is heard nearby and everyone follows. They come to a laundry basket and Emma reached through and search it, finding a pager and Dr. Whale's lab coat. Melody's eyes widened.

"No, but his pager is. He's gone," Emma announced.

Everyone once again exchanged glances and Melody yawned and rubbed her eyes.

"I'm definitely getting no sleep tonight."

---

Ruby sniffed Dr. Whale's lab coat to pick up the scent as everyone followed her.

"Got the scent?" Melody asked.

"Boozy," she replied.

The teen sighed and then put her hands in her pockets. "Just find him and bring him back. We'll watch Kil-Hook and figure out options if Whale doesn't come back." Thankfully, no one noticed her near slip up and Melody sighed lowly in relief.

"Maybe Doc can do it," Mary Margaret offered.

"Surgery? No," Leroy denied.

"Maybe he didn't even run. Maybe Cora grabbed him for some reason."

"I don't think so. He's been in a rough place since he had brought Regina's fiancé back to life," David revealed

"Daniel?"

"Back to life?!" Emma and Melody screeched.

"And had his arm ripped off and put back on," David explained nonchalantly.

"Cool," Leroy commented.

"Wait. Daniel came back?" Mary Margaret said, trying to process the news she just received.

"Like some kind of Frankenstein?" Melody questioned.

"That's Whale. The doctor. And Daniel was his-" David started.

"What went on here while we were gone?" Mary Margaret asked, cutting him off.

David didn't respond and just gave his wife a sympathetic look. Emma still looked shocked at the news and looked to Ruby.

"Ruby, get going. Bring back... Dr. Frankenstein," she said. Ruby nodded and walked out of the hospital. "We're going to send this guy back home with bolts in his neck," Emma said.

"She'll find him," Melody insisted.

"Yeah, but what kind of state is he going to be in?"

---

They waited for a few hours in the lobby of the hospital and everyone looked tired and bored. Melody laid her head against Emma's shoulder and kept her eyes closed, fighting sleep.

"I can give you a ride home, Melody. You don't have to stay with us," Emma said.

Melody opened her eyes and rubbed them. She shrugged. "I have nothing better to do. I'll probably have nightmares anyway."

Emma was about to respond when Dr. Whale and Ruby entered the hospital. Everyone stood up while Melody still stayed seated.

"Look who's back," she said, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Finally," Emma added.

"I don't know why everyone's so worried. I was just stretching my legs. Now I'm going to go do this thing," Whale told them.

Melody nodded and then yawned again. "You go do that."

---

Melody poured some coffee into a mug and sipped it. She sighed in content and walked back into the lobby where Dr. Whale was back, having finished the surgery.

"So the outsider is going live?" she broke in.

"He's got some recuperating ahead of him - a few weeks, maybe - but yes. He's going to live," Whale informed.

"Thank goodness," Mary Margaret breathed in relief.

"Or me," Whale added.

"Telling you right now, this will come to no good," Leroy said.

Melody rolled her eyes, forcing herself not to throw her coffee on the dwarf.

"Shut up, Leroy."

"I want to talk to him," Emma spoke up.

"He's waking up now," Whale announced.

"Already?" Melody said surprised.

"I waited a couple of hours to tell you in case he, you know, keeled over. But so far, so good."

"Well, let's talk to him," David replied.

"We're not talking to him as a group. We're not a group Sheriff," Emma reminded.

"But, we've been doing this together," Mary Margaret insisted.

"We're trying to convince this guy this place is normal. In a normal town, the Sheriff goes in and asks a few questions. She doesn't bring her parents in with her."

"That's true," Melody agreed with a tired smirk.

"We'll be right here, then," Mary Margaret said.

---

"Don't fall asleep yet, kid," David said, pushing the teen on her shoulder lightly.

Melody groaned and rubbed her tired eyes.

"I'm trying not too."

"You know, you helped a lot today."

The teen scoffed. "Sure I did."

"You did! You got Gold to leave Hook alone. For now at least. And you got Hook to lighten up a bit."

Melody smiled slightly at the Prince. "That doesn't count as helping."

"Well, it does in my book."

Emma entered the room and everyone turned to her.

"He didn't see anything?" Leroy asked.

"Free and clear," Emma said nodding.

"Oh, good. Now I can sleep," Melody spoke, breathing in relief.

"Now maybe, things can calm down for ten minutes and we can catch our breath," David said.

"This was one crazy day for sure."

Everyone nodded and laugh in agreement.

"It sure was," Emma said.

---

The moment when they entered the apartment, Melody ran to the couch and flopped down on it.

"Sleep!" she exclaimed. "Oh, I've missed you."

Emma, Mary Margaret, and David smiled and Henry ran down the stairs to greet them.

"You were out all night. Where were you? Granny wouldn't tell me anything. Did I miss it all?" Henry asked.

"Cereal okay?" David asked Melody.

"Yeah," she replied from the couch.

"Rumpelstiltskin and Captain Hook had a fight and someone got hurt," Mary Margaret told Henry.

"We weren't sure if Dr. Frankenstein could fix him, but he did," Emma said.

"Doctor? Oh... That's who Whale is," Henry realized.

"Yeah, but without the neck bolts."

"The monster had the bolts, not the doctor," Melody corrected.

Her eyes were starting to droop and she clutched the pillow close to her. She listened as Henry exited the room only to enter again.

"Frankenstein isn't in here. It's not even a fairy tale. That means it comes from another land with different stories," Henry said.

"Eat. I really want to go to bed," Emma responded.

Melody yawned again. "I'm beating you."

"If the curse went to places with other stories, then who knows who else is in this town?" Henry wondered, not listen to anything else as he spoke his thoughts out loud.

There was a knock on the door and Melody groaned. "Leave us alone."

Emma went to answer it but the person let themselves in first. Melody opened her eyes and saw her brother enter.

"Gold. We've all had a long night," Emma told him tiredly.

"You remember that favor you owe me, Miss Swan?" Gold asked, ignoring her comment.

"Yeah."

"I'm cashing it in."

"It's not... A good-"

"You do honor your agreements, don't you? I need to find someone, so we're leaving today. Pack your bag."

"Leaving?" Mary Margaret repeated.

"W-where?" Henry asked.

"Wait. Find someone? Who?" Melody asked.

"My son. It has to be today, because every minute I'm here, is a minute closer to me killing Hook." Melody glared as he continued. "So it's really best for all concerned if I leave, and you're going to come with me, Miss. Swan. Oh, and, um, we have a long history. So know this, and know it to be true. If any harm comes to Belle while I'm gone, I'm killing all of you. I'll see you at noon."

He left without another word and Melody snickered. "Well, that was rude. You seriously think he'd kill all of us?"

"Sadly, yes," David replied.

Melody took a deep breath and laid back down. "I don't know about you guys, but I'm tired. Wake me up when my idiot of a brother is back."

"Will do," Emma said, still staring at the door.

And she knew, this was truly only the beginning.

---

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