✓ 1. | BROKE HER ➸ ONCE UPON A TIME

sixteen

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StoryBrooke

She wasn't even standing on the cement for two seconds before she was engulfed in a hug by a familiar female. Melody smiled and laughed.

"Nice to see you too Ruby."

The wolf pulled back and smiled.

"I'm glad you're ok."

"I am too."

The two laughed and Mary Margaret and David came over and hugged the teen after hugging Emma.

"Are you guys ok?" Mary Margaret questioned.

Emma nodded. "We're ok."

"Uh, I drove a ship," Henry told David, smiling.

"Did you now?" David said.

"Yeah, my dad showed me how."

"That's...me," Neal spoke up, pointing to himself.

David went and helped Neal get Gold and set him in the back of the truck.

"Is Cora trying to control you with the dagger?" David asked when he was sat down.

"Oh, you'd know if she was, cause most of you would be dead by now," Gold told him with an eye roll.

"Then we'll just have to find her before she finds it," Melody chimed in.

"We will," David agreed.

"And this time, we finish it," Mary Margaret added.

Everyone turned to her shocked. Melody nearly went to slap the former bandit to make sure she was feeling ok.

"Mary Margaret..." David trailed off.

"David. She needs to be stopped. She needs to be killed. This is our family. We are going to protect it," Mary Margaret said firmly.

"Of course we will, but what you're talking about goes beyond that."

"Does it? Because she is the reason you've never met my mother."

"I know. I know what happened to Queen Eva, and I have zero problem with Cora dying for it. But not by your hand, and not out of vengeance."

"Why?"

"Because you wouldn't be able to live with yourself. You have the purest heart of anyone I have ever known. That's who you are, and that's who you're going to stay."

Everyone else stood awkwardly and Melody cleared her throat.

"Well, that got serious fast." She turned to her brother who was clutching his chest. "You okay?" Then she winced. "Sorry! Stupid question."

"I'm beginning to feel a bit stronger. Take me back to my shop. There's magic there that can protect us."

"Let me guess. I get to go with Ruby," Henry guessed, looking at them.

"You got it, kid," Emma said hugging his side.

"I'll keep him out of the crossfire," Ruby told her.

The two went to Ruby's car and then drove off.

"This is going to be fun," Melody said sarcastically, breaking the silence.

---

Neal set Gold on the couch in the backroom of the Pawnshop and Melody walked in with an empty vial.

"Melody, did you find it?" Gold asked her.

Melody looked at him unimpressed.

"Yeah. There's nothing in it."