all_inclusive | and straight on til morning

The deep level of mistrust that David holds for his current predicament knows no bounds.

For one, finding himself aboard the Jolly Roger with a pirate, the evil queen intent on making his wife's life an unhappy hell, and his distressed daughter? Not good. Watching Rumplestiltskin evaporate into thin air and doing god knows what where he can't see him? Even more not good. Walking through the Captain's cabin door and stumbling when his sea legs give out from under him because there's no more ocean to compensate for? Yeah, that part is what David's really trying to get used to.

He doesn't have his sword because he'd been looking for a map and didn't think he'd need it to defend himself, but Hook had apparently rigged himself up a portal that led from the seas outside Neverland to this strange building. He'd arrived just as a party was breaking up and he'd watched odd people in mad costumes filter out through the hotel -- though some people went through doors and never came back -- and try as he might, the best answer that he could get out of anyone was this and only this: Nexus Hotel.

He thought he'd seen a familiar face or two, but they were only passing by and wouldn't stop to answer his questions, which is how he's found himself sitting at the bar, chocolate milk in hand and staring forward as he tries to think up a plan.

He will always, always find his family, but sometimes it seems like the universe truly enjoys testing him.

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"We finally got a doctor a few weeks before I came here. He said the odds were about even," Fran told him, rubbing at a spot just below her ribs where a little foot kept poking out. She winced just a little. "There were a set of twins already born after...they didn't make it."

"I'm sorry," Charming offers, wishing that he could do something for her. "What about here? Have you seen a doctor here?" Maybe the answer would be the same, but there was just a glimmer of a chance that it might be different.

"I haven't even thought to ask if there's one here," Fran admitted, a little stunned by the revelation. "It's strange, how quickly you stop thinking about things like that when they suddenly disappear. I should probably check to find out though. I mean, I have two months to go, but...," she trailed off and shrugged her shoulders. "I'm sure the baby wouldn't have the same problems here. Larry said no one here was sick and they would have been if he carried the superflu here with him."

"Maybe you should inspect to see whether there's a doctor?" he offers gently, not wanting to tell her what to do. "Maybe there'll be a pleasant surprise for you? Maybe there's medicine that can help. I know where I come from, there's a lake whose water can heal all wounds," he says. "Maybe if nothing else works, we can go there. There might be something left at Lake Gnostos."

"I'll ask on the hotel stationary, I think. I've seen people talking on it and it might be easier than just stopping others in the hall and asking for their resumes," Fran smiled. "You seem to know a lot about calming down pregnant women. Is it an innate skill or one you learned?"

He's pretty new here, so he's not entirely sure what stationary has to do with any of this. "I learned it when my wife was pregnant with our child. Snow was fairly calm through the pregnancy, but there were a few moments I had to pull out the charm."

Fran nodded because it wasn't exactly unexpected. She knew from experience that men with no practical experience tended to treat the mound of a pregnancy like the baby was going to just burst out of it at any minute.

"Is your wife here? Or your child? I know some have been lucky enough to have family join them here."

"No, but they're both where I need to be," he says, which is where the passion to return lies. "I need to get back to Snow and Emma before they think I've abandoned them." It's the last thing he wants and with Henry's safety on the line, it's doubly important.

"And you haven't found a door back to them?" It was a question, but she said it like a statement. If he had found a way home, he wouldn't sound as worried as he was. "I know I should want to go back, but part of me doesn't. I don't want to know what's waiting for me there."

"No, not yet," he admits, which is hard to say, but he knows that it won't be a permanent thing. He'll find a door back to them because he always finds them and they'll find Henry. They have to. It's practically the family crest. "Maybe this can be your new home?"

Frannie thought of what waited for her on the other side of the door she'd come though. An interminable wait for a man who may or may not (probably not) return to her, death, plague, and a few remaining friends. "It would be a safer world for the baby, I think, so maybe I can hope for that."

"If you do give birth and I'm still stuck here," he gets out with a miserable little stressed smile, "I'll have to drop by and make sure I get you a gift for the baby."

"We would both appreciate that," Fran smiled back, her own smile not much happier than his looked.

and straight on til morning

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