Bring Him Home
Jan. 24th, 2013 12:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tellshannon815Title: Bring Him Home
Recipient:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
empty_marrow
Author:tellshannon815
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: Red/Ruby, Geppetto/Marco, Henry Mills, Rumplestiltskin/Mr. Gold, Pinocchio/August Booth, Emma Swan, Jiminy Cricket/Archie Hopper.
Word Count: 2984
Warnings: Spoilers up to 2x02. At the time of finishing 2x09 hadn’t aired, so anything that contradicts that episode is for that reason.
Summary: Ruby, Marco and Henry team up to track down the missing August.
Author's Notes: Thanks tomoon_blitz for looking this over. Also, hope you don’t mind that it doesn’t stick specifically to the original prompts, although both #1 and #3 inspired it!
If anyone had told Marco he would be approaching Rumpelstiltskin for help, he would have thought they were crazy. But he didn’t know where else he could turn. He’d tried the Blue Fairy, who had turned Pinocchio human in the first place, but she had said she had no idea, just like she had never been sure whether Pinocchio would have remained human in the first place. Also, she had no magic at her disposal now, so there was nothing she could do to help Marco anyway. So Mr. Gold or Rumpelstiltskin it was.
“Marco,” Mr. Gold greeted him. “I wondered when I might be seeing you. I had a visit from someone the other day. He was looking for me to see if I could help him. Of course, you were there too, but you didn’t realise who he was then, did you?”
Marco tried not to rise to this. “Have you seen him? Do you know where my son is now?”
Mr. Gold continued as if he hadn't spoken. “He was looking for me to see if I could cure him. He said he needed magic, otherwise he had no time.”
“But have you seen him since the curse was broken?” Marco repeated, taking a step towards Mr. Gold. Mr. Gold looked as though he were about to reply, but then Marco caught sight of something behind him.
“This is what happened to them? You kept them all these years?” Marco gestured frantically in the direction of the shelf behind him, where two dolls sat, hand in hand in death as they had been in life: all that remained of his parents. “You – you – “ Marco leaped towards Mr. Gold and attempted to fasten his hands around his throat, choking him. Somewhere faintly behind him, he was aware of a female voice yelling “Mr. Gold, stop!” But the next thing he knew, there was a loud bang, and Marco found himself thrown backwards, landing in a heap at the feet of who he now realised was Ruby.
“What the hell are you doing?” Ruby exclaimed. Marco struggled to his feet, accepting Ruby’s outstretched hand with one of his own and picking up what remained of his parents with the other. Mr. Gold did not try to stop him.
“Come on, I’m taking you to Granny’s,” Ruby began. “I’ll buy you some of her famous cinnamon hot chocolate. And then you can tell me what that was all about.”
*****
“So tell me, why did you go and see him?” Ruby asked when they were sat in Granny’s Diner, ignoring a curious stare from Leroy.
“Because I was looking for my son. He hasn’t been seen since the curse was broken. And now Henry has told me that he was here, that August is my son, but when I went looking for him I couldn’t find him.” Marco had finally started to hope that he and his son were about to be reunited, and while his initial reaction had been relief that August appeared to have survived, he knew that he still wouldn’t feel able to forgive himself until he knew for certain what had happened. How could he have thought about leaving Storybrooke, losing all the memories he had had of his son, giving up hope of ever finding him again? Ruby hadn’t given up, and neither had David, whose chances of being reunited with Mary Margaret and Emma looked even worse right now.
“August is your son?” Ruby asked. “That’s...well. I don’t even know what to say. But why would you go to Mr. Gold specifically?”
“Because Henry told me that he was starting to turn back into wood before the curse broke. I had feared that I was going to be too late. But then I got to his room in the hotel, and he was gone. He must have survived. And I think the only other person who might have been able to tell me how that could have been was Mr. Gold.” Marco shook his head.
“So why were you so angry with him? Was he refusing to tell you anything?” Ruby asked, looking confused.
“Actually, I don’t know whether he would have told me anything or not. I didn’t give him the chance,” Marco admitted. He reached into his bag and pulled out what remained of his parents. “He has been holding on to them for all these years, and I have been unable to say a proper goodbye to my parents.”
Ruby gasped, struggling to keep the shudder from showing. Archie, or Jiminy, had told her what had happened to Geppetto’s parents some time ago, but to actually be confronted with the sight of them had come as a shock.
“And do you think he has August too?” she asked.
Marco swallowed hard. “I had not thought of that,” he admitted. “I saw that he was not there, and I hoped that he had left. But I have no idea where he would go.”
“He worked for you for a few days before the curse was broken,” Ruby pointed out. “Was there anything he said to you in those days that might have given you a clue to where he might go?”
“I can’t even remember the last things we said to each other,” Marco replied. “It was probably something trite about seeing him the next day, or even the weather. I had no idea at the time how important it would be. If I had known that it was going to be the last time I would see my son, if I had even known that he was my son at the time...”
“You can’t blame yourself for not recognising him,” Ruby began. “No one recognised anyone during the curse.”
“You and your grandmother stayed together. Mary Margaret and David ended up gravitating together, so did Ashley and Sean, and even I retained my friendship with Archie until recently. So why did I not recognise August?”
“I don’t know. Maybe because the Pinocchio you would have subconsciously remembered was a young boy, younger than Henry Mills is now, and August was a man. I really can’t answer that. But you don’t know that it was the last time you were ever going to see August again. I’m sure he’s out there somewhere, and I’m gonna help you find him,” Ruby vowed.
“But how can you do that?” Marco asked.
“Since the curse was broken...I’ve been able to track people.” Ruby decided not to point out that her tracking skills had actually resurfaced earlier as well, when she’d helped Emma to track down Kathryn Nolan. She knew it wouldn’t help Marco to hear that. “I’m going to need something of August’s. That way, I should be able to find him.”
*****
“I keep thinking back, trying to remember everything we talked about,” Marco sighed as he and Ruby made their way towards Granny’s B and B. “Maybe he said something that would have given me some kind of clue as to where he might go.”
“The only conversation I can really remember with him is one about how he’d seen lemurs in Nepal,” Ruby replied. “And I’m sure he’s not going there. This was his room, the one on the right.”
Ruby knew it wouldn’t be so simple that August would have returned to his room and be there waiting for him. But she still found herself glancing around the room looking for any sign that he had returned.
“It is just as I left it,” Marco informed her. “He has not been back.”
“Okay.” Ruby began. “I’m gonna need something like this T-shirt, something I can use for the smell to be able to track him down.” She grabbed a shirt that August had discarded, and took a last look around the room before exiting.
Ruby took a sniff of the shirt, then sniffed at the air, then frowned. “This is odd, I’m not picking anything up here. It’s as though he never left Granny’s B & B. But that’s not possible. I know he’s not still there.”
“Keep trying,” Marco pleaded. “Is there any way at all he could still be there?”
“Damn it,” Ruby muttered. “I know why I can’t track him by picking up his scent. He must still have been wood when he left the B & B. So he wouldn’t smell like himself.”
“Now what do we do?” Marco put his head in his hands.
“Is there really nothing that you can remember him saying that might help us find where he might have gone?” Ruby asked.
“Wait!” called out a voice from behind them. Ruby whirled around to see Henry Mills running towards them, brandishing a piece of paper in his hand.
“What is it, Henry?” she asked.
“I know what was on August’s mind before he turned back to wood.” Henry explained. “He was worried about Emma, about how he could get her to believe in the curse. I think he might have been trying to get to her in some way.”
“He can’t have found his way back home, can he?” Marco frowned.
“I don’t know how.” Ruby shook her head. “I talked to David about that – from what he’d said, the hat that Emma and Mary Margaret went through wouldn’t work any more, and that Jefferson guy couldn’t do anything with it. So I don’t see how he can.”
“This might help,” Henry said, handing Ruby the piece of paper he had been waving at her; Ruby took it and read the headline which spoke of a 7 year old boy having found an abandoned baby by the side of the road. “That baby’s Emma, and August was the kid who found her in that article. Maybe August went to where they came out, in case that’s where he thinks they’re going to come out again.”
“Where is this place?” Marco asked.
“The problem is, August hadn’t told the truth about where Emma was found,” Henry admitted. “The tree where they both came out was in the forest somewhere, outside of Storybrooke.”
“But if he is there, how can we find him?” Marco despaired. “We cannot leave Storybrooke without losing our memories.”
“You can’t,” Henry smiled. “But I can. Let me help you search, and if anyone needs to leave Storybrooke, I’ll do it for you.”
*****
“How is it possible that no one saw him?” Marco asked. “You would think that a wooden man walking through Storybrooke would have attracted someone’s attention.”
“There was so much going on at the time,” Ruby explained. “We’d all just realised who we were, then as soon as we’d found that out we found out that if we left, we’d lose all our memories. Maybe that explains why no one noticed him. I don’t know. Or maybe he found some other way out of Storybrooke, managed to slip out in all the confusion.” Ruby wasn’t even certain of what she was saying, but could think of no other explanation for Marco.
“Not without Emma,” Henry replied. “He wouldn’t have escaped without her. The only reason he’d leave Storybrooke is if he thought he was trying to find her. Maybe he thought that if he could get back if he went to where they both came out 28 years ago, and he’d go back through the tree. Or maybe he thought that was where she would come out when she got back.”
“Do you know where that might be?” Ruby asked.
“I’ll have a look at my book, see if I can find any clue to it,” Henry replied. “If I can, I’ll make my way there, see if I can find him.”
He still looked worried, and Ruby thought she understood why. If Emma and Mary Margaret came out somewhere outside of Storybrooke, then Mary Margaret would end up forgetting all her memories of being Snow White, just as Tom Clark had forgotten that he was Sneezy (unless the fairy dust that Leroy and the others had finally managed to find in the mine worked). But Ruby was sure in her heart that David was thinking of something, that he would find some way to get Snow back. Just as she was determined that they would find August.
*****
“Hey, August!” Henry called out, tripping over a tree root in his haste to get to him.
August slowly turned around to face Henry, who was trying not to flinch at his wooden figure.
“I don’t think she’s going to come out there. Gramps and the dwarves are trying to find a way to get her back to Storybrooke, and I think they’re close. But you need to come back, because Marco’s looking for you. He couldn’t come himself, because if he leaves Storybrooke, he won’t remember who he is. But you need to come with me to meet him. And the Blue Fairy might be able to fix you again, too. The dwarves found fairy dust in the old mine. If you come back with me, she might be able to make you real again.”
August turned around and took a few tentative steps towards Henry.
“Here, I’ll give you a hand.” Henry said, noticing August stumble slightly. “I’ll bring you to your father.”
Marco was going to be so happy to see him. Emma, too, when she eventually got back to Storybrooke. And Henry was the one who had brought him back. He was finally getting to do what he wanted, to be a hero like his grandfather.
*****
“What if he’s wrong?” Marco asked worriedly. “What if my boy isn’t there?”
“Then we’ll keep on looking. I’m not going to give up on him, Marco, and you shouldn’t either.”
“I caused all this,” Marco looked away from Ruby. “If I had not been so determined that he should escape the curse, would he still have turned to wood? It was exactly this that I was trying to avoid. Jiminy returned to his human form, maybe Pinocchio would have returned to wood too. I could not let that happen, and yet that is what I have caused anyway. It was too much of a burden to place on him at such a young age; I was setting him up to fall. And I am never going to get the chance to apologise to him for that.”
“Actually, Marco, I think you are.” Ruby pointed to where Henry was leading a wooden figure by the hand.
“Pinocchio!” Marco cried, running over to him.
“It was just like I thought,” Henry explained to Ruby as Marco embraced his son. “He was trying to find Emma. Let’s see if we can get him to the Blue Fairy, see if she can do anything for him with the fairy dust.”
“You know what?” came a voice from behind them. “You might not need that.”
“Emma?” Henry whispered.
“I got back about an hour ago,” Emma explained. “You and David did it. You managed to find the way.”
August turned around and approached Emma with his slow, lumbering gait. Emma was clearly trying not to flinch at his appearance, but she walked up to him, said, “And I’m sorry that I didn’t believe you,” before leaning forward to kiss him.
“It’s true love’s kiss,” Henry whispered to Ruby. “Look, she broke his curse, he’s turning human again!”
*****
“I am sorry for what happened,” Marco began as he, Ruby, Emma and August stood beside the grave that he had dug for his parents. “I am sorry that I sneaked out to go to the carnival that night. Maybe if I had been there, I could have stopped it happening. And I am sorry that I cannot remember the last thing that I said to you.” He didn’t say anything about how he had doubted his parents at one time, about how he had questioned why they had taken the so-called elf tonic without waiting for him. Maybe Jiminy had been right all along, maybe they really had been trying to protect him by taking it first just in case it wasn’t what it had purported to be. At one time, he would have been scared to ask, in case it really had been true what he had feared, that his parents had cared more for their own safety than for his. But he now felt sure that that wasn’t true. Marco knew that his parents had loved him. He was never going to get another chance to tell them so, but the one thing that he could do for them was to give them the memorial they deserved.
“Marco.” Ruby reached out and touched him on the arm, pointing behind them to where Archie Hopper stood, watching them and looking as though he didn’t dare approach them. (Which he probably didn’t; they hadn’t spoken since Marco’s memories returned and he remembered Jiminy’s role in what had happened to his parents).
August nodded encouragingly. “Go on.”
Marco stepped away from the group, walked over towards his friend. “Archie, come and join us.” He held out his hand, which Archie took, and the two of them walked back over to the group.
Marco was finally forgiving himself for everything that had happened with his parents, and with August. He understood now that the only way he could move forward was to forgive Archie too.
*****
Ruby smiled as she watched Marco and Archie hug. She knew that Marco had finally taken the first steps; he had forgiven himself and was managing to rebuild his relationships with August and Archie. Now Ruby had to take a leaf out of her friend’s book and learn to forgive herself as well for all her actions as a wolf.
“It’s going to be fine,” Archie mouthed at Ruby. “You can do it. Talk to me any time you want.”
And with Archie’s encouragement, Ruby felt that it was possible.
Recipient:
empty_marrowAuthor:
tellshannon815Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: Red/Ruby, Geppetto/Marco, Henry Mills, Rumplestiltskin/Mr. Gold, Pinocchio/August Booth, Emma Swan, Jiminy Cricket/Archie Hopper.
Word Count: 2984
Warnings: Spoilers up to 2x02. At the time of finishing 2x09 hadn’t aired, so anything that contradicts that episode is for that reason.
Summary: Ruby, Marco and Henry team up to track down the missing August.
Author's Notes: Thanks to
moon_blitz for looking this over. Also, hope you don’t mind that it doesn’t stick specifically to the original prompts, although both #1 and #3 inspired it!If anyone had told Marco he would be approaching Rumpelstiltskin for help, he would have thought they were crazy. But he didn’t know where else he could turn. He’d tried the Blue Fairy, who had turned Pinocchio human in the first place, but she had said she had no idea, just like she had never been sure whether Pinocchio would have remained human in the first place. Also, she had no magic at her disposal now, so there was nothing she could do to help Marco anyway. So Mr. Gold or Rumpelstiltskin it was.
“Marco,” Mr. Gold greeted him. “I wondered when I might be seeing you. I had a visit from someone the other day. He was looking for me to see if I could help him. Of course, you were there too, but you didn’t realise who he was then, did you?”
Marco tried not to rise to this. “Have you seen him? Do you know where my son is now?”
Mr. Gold continued as if he hadn't spoken. “He was looking for me to see if I could cure him. He said he needed magic, otherwise he had no time.”
“But have you seen him since the curse was broken?” Marco repeated, taking a step towards Mr. Gold. Mr. Gold looked as though he were about to reply, but then Marco caught sight of something behind him.
“This is what happened to them? You kept them all these years?” Marco gestured frantically in the direction of the shelf behind him, where two dolls sat, hand in hand in death as they had been in life: all that remained of his parents. “You – you – “ Marco leaped towards Mr. Gold and attempted to fasten his hands around his throat, choking him. Somewhere faintly behind him, he was aware of a female voice yelling “Mr. Gold, stop!” But the next thing he knew, there was a loud bang, and Marco found himself thrown backwards, landing in a heap at the feet of who he now realised was Ruby.
“What the hell are you doing?” Ruby exclaimed. Marco struggled to his feet, accepting Ruby’s outstretched hand with one of his own and picking up what remained of his parents with the other. Mr. Gold did not try to stop him.
“Come on, I’m taking you to Granny’s,” Ruby began. “I’ll buy you some of her famous cinnamon hot chocolate. And then you can tell me what that was all about.”
*****
“So tell me, why did you go and see him?” Ruby asked when they were sat in Granny’s Diner, ignoring a curious stare from Leroy.
“Because I was looking for my son. He hasn’t been seen since the curse was broken. And now Henry has told me that he was here, that August is my son, but when I went looking for him I couldn’t find him.” Marco had finally started to hope that he and his son were about to be reunited, and while his initial reaction had been relief that August appeared to have survived, he knew that he still wouldn’t feel able to forgive himself until he knew for certain what had happened. How could he have thought about leaving Storybrooke, losing all the memories he had had of his son, giving up hope of ever finding him again? Ruby hadn’t given up, and neither had David, whose chances of being reunited with Mary Margaret and Emma looked even worse right now.
“August is your son?” Ruby asked. “That’s...well. I don’t even know what to say. But why would you go to Mr. Gold specifically?”
“Because Henry told me that he was starting to turn back into wood before the curse broke. I had feared that I was going to be too late. But then I got to his room in the hotel, and he was gone. He must have survived. And I think the only other person who might have been able to tell me how that could have been was Mr. Gold.” Marco shook his head.
“So why were you so angry with him? Was he refusing to tell you anything?” Ruby asked, looking confused.
“Actually, I don’t know whether he would have told me anything or not. I didn’t give him the chance,” Marco admitted. He reached into his bag and pulled out what remained of his parents. “He has been holding on to them for all these years, and I have been unable to say a proper goodbye to my parents.”
Ruby gasped, struggling to keep the shudder from showing. Archie, or Jiminy, had told her what had happened to Geppetto’s parents some time ago, but to actually be confronted with the sight of them had come as a shock.
“And do you think he has August too?” she asked.
Marco swallowed hard. “I had not thought of that,” he admitted. “I saw that he was not there, and I hoped that he had left. But I have no idea where he would go.”
“He worked for you for a few days before the curse was broken,” Ruby pointed out. “Was there anything he said to you in those days that might have given you a clue to where he might go?”
“I can’t even remember the last things we said to each other,” Marco replied. “It was probably something trite about seeing him the next day, or even the weather. I had no idea at the time how important it would be. If I had known that it was going to be the last time I would see my son, if I had even known that he was my son at the time...”
“You can’t blame yourself for not recognising him,” Ruby began. “No one recognised anyone during the curse.”
“You and your grandmother stayed together. Mary Margaret and David ended up gravitating together, so did Ashley and Sean, and even I retained my friendship with Archie until recently. So why did I not recognise August?”
“I don’t know. Maybe because the Pinocchio you would have subconsciously remembered was a young boy, younger than Henry Mills is now, and August was a man. I really can’t answer that. But you don’t know that it was the last time you were ever going to see August again. I’m sure he’s out there somewhere, and I’m gonna help you find him,” Ruby vowed.
“But how can you do that?” Marco asked.
“Since the curse was broken...I’ve been able to track people.” Ruby decided not to point out that her tracking skills had actually resurfaced earlier as well, when she’d helped Emma to track down Kathryn Nolan. She knew it wouldn’t help Marco to hear that. “I’m going to need something of August’s. That way, I should be able to find him.”
*****
“I keep thinking back, trying to remember everything we talked about,” Marco sighed as he and Ruby made their way towards Granny’s B and B. “Maybe he said something that would have given me some kind of clue as to where he might go.”
“The only conversation I can really remember with him is one about how he’d seen lemurs in Nepal,” Ruby replied. “And I’m sure he’s not going there. This was his room, the one on the right.”
Ruby knew it wouldn’t be so simple that August would have returned to his room and be there waiting for him. But she still found herself glancing around the room looking for any sign that he had returned.
“It is just as I left it,” Marco informed her. “He has not been back.”
“Okay.” Ruby began. “I’m gonna need something like this T-shirt, something I can use for the smell to be able to track him down.” She grabbed a shirt that August had discarded, and took a last look around the room before exiting.
Ruby took a sniff of the shirt, then sniffed at the air, then frowned. “This is odd, I’m not picking anything up here. It’s as though he never left Granny’s B & B. But that’s not possible. I know he’s not still there.”
“Keep trying,” Marco pleaded. “Is there any way at all he could still be there?”
“Damn it,” Ruby muttered. “I know why I can’t track him by picking up his scent. He must still have been wood when he left the B & B. So he wouldn’t smell like himself.”
“Now what do we do?” Marco put his head in his hands.
“Is there really nothing that you can remember him saying that might help us find where he might have gone?” Ruby asked.
“Wait!” called out a voice from behind them. Ruby whirled around to see Henry Mills running towards them, brandishing a piece of paper in his hand.
“What is it, Henry?” she asked.
“I know what was on August’s mind before he turned back to wood.” Henry explained. “He was worried about Emma, about how he could get her to believe in the curse. I think he might have been trying to get to her in some way.”
“He can’t have found his way back home, can he?” Marco frowned.
“I don’t know how.” Ruby shook her head. “I talked to David about that – from what he’d said, the hat that Emma and Mary Margaret went through wouldn’t work any more, and that Jefferson guy couldn’t do anything with it. So I don’t see how he can.”
“This might help,” Henry said, handing Ruby the piece of paper he had been waving at her; Ruby took it and read the headline which spoke of a 7 year old boy having found an abandoned baby by the side of the road. “That baby’s Emma, and August was the kid who found her in that article. Maybe August went to where they came out, in case that’s where he thinks they’re going to come out again.”
“Where is this place?” Marco asked.
“The problem is, August hadn’t told the truth about where Emma was found,” Henry admitted. “The tree where they both came out was in the forest somewhere, outside of Storybrooke.”
“But if he is there, how can we find him?” Marco despaired. “We cannot leave Storybrooke without losing our memories.”
“You can’t,” Henry smiled. “But I can. Let me help you search, and if anyone needs to leave Storybrooke, I’ll do it for you.”
*****
“How is it possible that no one saw him?” Marco asked. “You would think that a wooden man walking through Storybrooke would have attracted someone’s attention.”
“There was so much going on at the time,” Ruby explained. “We’d all just realised who we were, then as soon as we’d found that out we found out that if we left, we’d lose all our memories. Maybe that explains why no one noticed him. I don’t know. Or maybe he found some other way out of Storybrooke, managed to slip out in all the confusion.” Ruby wasn’t even certain of what she was saying, but could think of no other explanation for Marco.
“Not without Emma,” Henry replied. “He wouldn’t have escaped without her. The only reason he’d leave Storybrooke is if he thought he was trying to find her. Maybe he thought that if he could get back if he went to where they both came out 28 years ago, and he’d go back through the tree. Or maybe he thought that was where she would come out when she got back.”
“Do you know where that might be?” Ruby asked.
“I’ll have a look at my book, see if I can find any clue to it,” Henry replied. “If I can, I’ll make my way there, see if I can find him.”
He still looked worried, and Ruby thought she understood why. If Emma and Mary Margaret came out somewhere outside of Storybrooke, then Mary Margaret would end up forgetting all her memories of being Snow White, just as Tom Clark had forgotten that he was Sneezy (unless the fairy dust that Leroy and the others had finally managed to find in the mine worked). But Ruby was sure in her heart that David was thinking of something, that he would find some way to get Snow back. Just as she was determined that they would find August.
*****
“Hey, August!” Henry called out, tripping over a tree root in his haste to get to him.
August slowly turned around to face Henry, who was trying not to flinch at his wooden figure.
“I don’t think she’s going to come out there. Gramps and the dwarves are trying to find a way to get her back to Storybrooke, and I think they’re close. But you need to come back, because Marco’s looking for you. He couldn’t come himself, because if he leaves Storybrooke, he won’t remember who he is. But you need to come with me to meet him. And the Blue Fairy might be able to fix you again, too. The dwarves found fairy dust in the old mine. If you come back with me, she might be able to make you real again.”
August turned around and took a few tentative steps towards Henry.
“Here, I’ll give you a hand.” Henry said, noticing August stumble slightly. “I’ll bring you to your father.”
Marco was going to be so happy to see him. Emma, too, when she eventually got back to Storybrooke. And Henry was the one who had brought him back. He was finally getting to do what he wanted, to be a hero like his grandfather.
*****
“What if he’s wrong?” Marco asked worriedly. “What if my boy isn’t there?”
“Then we’ll keep on looking. I’m not going to give up on him, Marco, and you shouldn’t either.”
“I caused all this,” Marco looked away from Ruby. “If I had not been so determined that he should escape the curse, would he still have turned to wood? It was exactly this that I was trying to avoid. Jiminy returned to his human form, maybe Pinocchio would have returned to wood too. I could not let that happen, and yet that is what I have caused anyway. It was too much of a burden to place on him at such a young age; I was setting him up to fall. And I am never going to get the chance to apologise to him for that.”
“Actually, Marco, I think you are.” Ruby pointed to where Henry was leading a wooden figure by the hand.
“Pinocchio!” Marco cried, running over to him.
“It was just like I thought,” Henry explained to Ruby as Marco embraced his son. “He was trying to find Emma. Let’s see if we can get him to the Blue Fairy, see if she can do anything for him with the fairy dust.”
“You know what?” came a voice from behind them. “You might not need that.”
“Emma?” Henry whispered.
“I got back about an hour ago,” Emma explained. “You and David did it. You managed to find the way.”
August turned around and approached Emma with his slow, lumbering gait. Emma was clearly trying not to flinch at his appearance, but she walked up to him, said, “And I’m sorry that I didn’t believe you,” before leaning forward to kiss him.
“It’s true love’s kiss,” Henry whispered to Ruby. “Look, she broke his curse, he’s turning human again!”
*****
“I am sorry for what happened,” Marco began as he, Ruby, Emma and August stood beside the grave that he had dug for his parents. “I am sorry that I sneaked out to go to the carnival that night. Maybe if I had been there, I could have stopped it happening. And I am sorry that I cannot remember the last thing that I said to you.” He didn’t say anything about how he had doubted his parents at one time, about how he had questioned why they had taken the so-called elf tonic without waiting for him. Maybe Jiminy had been right all along, maybe they really had been trying to protect him by taking it first just in case it wasn’t what it had purported to be. At one time, he would have been scared to ask, in case it really had been true what he had feared, that his parents had cared more for their own safety than for his. But he now felt sure that that wasn’t true. Marco knew that his parents had loved him. He was never going to get another chance to tell them so, but the one thing that he could do for them was to give them the memorial they deserved.
“Marco.” Ruby reached out and touched him on the arm, pointing behind them to where Archie Hopper stood, watching them and looking as though he didn’t dare approach them. (Which he probably didn’t; they hadn’t spoken since Marco’s memories returned and he remembered Jiminy’s role in what had happened to his parents).
August nodded encouragingly. “Go on.”
Marco stepped away from the group, walked over towards his friend. “Archie, come and join us.” He held out his hand, which Archie took, and the two of them walked back over to the group.
Marco was finally forgiving himself for everything that had happened with his parents, and with August. He understood now that the only way he could move forward was to forgive Archie too.
*****
Ruby smiled as she watched Marco and Archie hug. She knew that Marco had finally taken the first steps; he had forgiven himself and was managing to rebuild his relationships with August and Archie. Now Ruby had to take a leaf out of her friend’s book and learn to forgive herself as well for all her actions as a wolf.
“It’s going to be fine,” Archie mouthed at Ruby. “You can do it. Talk to me any time you want.”
And with Archie’s encouragement, Ruby felt that it was possible.