Chapter 21: Never Lose You Again

Kyle signed up for ballet classes after school, and comes home from his first lesson dying to show off his new plie skills to his mother.

Shelly is less than impressed. "Why couldn't you sign up for scouts?" she complains, "Ballet is for girls. Or sissies."

"Is not," Kyle protests weakly, but his mother has turned back to her TV show and stopped paying attention to him.

Elliot isn't at home to appreciate his son's new dance moves because he has an early show at Doug's Hangout. While he's doing a simple Walking into the Wind mime, he feels a sudden, sharp stab in the back and collapses onto the floor. Unable to move, let alone perform, Elliot is rushed to the hospital.

They let Shelly in to see him as soon as the examination is done.

"I slipped a disc," he tells her, "It may get better on its own over time, or I may need surgery. Either way, it's finished my career."

"Do you remember what you said about why you weren't pursuing a career in professional sports?" she asks in an accusing tone, "You said there was a risk of career ending injuries. So, you basically gave it all up for nothing."

Elliot had expected a more sympathetic reaction from his wife, some show of love and support. Instead, he gets this. "Shell, I had a lot of reasons for not choosing to go into professional sports, the main one being to do what I actually wanted to do."

"You did what you wanted and it ruined you!" Shelly sobs, "Now you'll never be anything but a failed acrobat."

"I'm in a lot of pain here, Shelly," Elliot says, his voice and even as he holds himself through sheer will. When he gets no response, he just sighs. There's no point in telling her how he feels about the abrupt end of his career and the pain the doctor says he will likely experience for the rest of his life, she filters out anything that isn't directly about her.  "They're going to release me as soon the paperwork is settled; why don't you go out front and check on that?" he suggests, to get her out of his sight for awhile.

"We're here," Moth announces as he leads the small group up the cobblestone path to a man who stands waiting for the, by his front steps. Farrell, Aouregan and Pearl had met up with Moth in the woods not far from the MorcuCorp lab after their narrow escape. The fairy promised he'd secured them a safe place to hide in a town called Drake's Hollow.

"My name is Ariel Hawksquill," the man introduces himself, "Moth tells me you seek sanctuary. Come inside. We've been waiting for you."

Ariel introduces them to his wife, Noelle, and gestures for them to sit on the couches of the front parlor of his old Victorian home.

"Drake's Hollow was once a nesting site for a family of dragons," Ariel says when they are all seated, "Though dragons are magical creatures by nature, like the fae, their magic only manifests in two ways; first, in their ability to shift forms..."

"I knew it," Aouregan cries out, interrupting, "I knew the dragons were more than they seemed."

"Indeed," Ariel smiles wryly, and then continues without missing a beat, "And secondly, in their ability to cast powerful protective wards. Though the dragons who nested here are long gone, tens of thousands of years gone, the wards they've placed on this land remained. Greatly weakened, of course. When the dragons were here, no human would be able to find this spot, intentionally or by accident. Now, of course, we can, but it's extremely difficult. People who know of the place, even those of us who were born here, have trouble finding the way in, even with maps to guide them."

"You're saying that will be enough to keep MorcuCorp from finding us?" Farrell asks doubtfully, not wanting to rely on the magic of thousands of years gone dragons for his and Aouregan's safety.

"No, not at all," Ariel answers, "But it provides an excellent base for Moth and Tansy and weave their protective spell around you. Maintaining a glamour of that magnitude for your entire lives will require much of their energy; doing it here means they at least don't have to build it from scratch, they can just strengthen and focus the residual magic left by the dragons' wards."

Ariel sounds scholarly and learned enough, Farrell thinks, but all this talk of dragons and magical wards is still hard for him to swallow. "Tansy?" he asks, not recognizing the name.

"I'm surprised Moth hasn't mentioned her," Ariel laughs, "He's been quite smitten with her since he came to our little village. She is fae, like he is, and has volunteered to help him hide you from your pursuers. Tansy is young, but very powerful."

Farrell glances at Pearl, who nods at him with a grim frown. Working for MorcuCorp has made her more accustomed to accepting these flights of fancy living side by side with hard science. And apparently Farrell is going to have to accustom himself to it as well. MorcuCorp will never leave them alone, never stop looking for them, and his only recourse is to take shelter here.

"It's getting late," Noelle observes, taking her husband's hand, "I'm sure our guests would like sometime to themselves. There will be time for history lessons later."

They both have so many questions they want to ask each other, and so many things they want to say, but, finally left alone together in the Hawksquills' guest room, Farrell and Aouregan exchange no words as their arms wrap around each other and their lips meet in a tender kiss.

They make love clinging to each other, clasped together, to never be parted again.

"Tell me about our children," Aouregan breaks the blissful silence, twining her fingers into his.

"They're amazing," Farrell sighs happily, "They both look mostly like you; Aourora is your image in miniature. Shadow has my hair, but your eyes."

"Why Shadow?" Aouregan asks, "Is that a common name now?"

"I had to come up with names on the spot, when my brother asked," Farrell explains, "We can change it if you'd like."

"Does he know his name yet?" Aouregan asks.

Farrell smiles, "He does. He likes to say it, too, extending the first syllable, like, Shhhhaaaadow," he says, imitating the way his son pronounces his name.

"Well, I wouldn't to change it on him," Aouregan says softly, her eyes brimming with tears.

"I'm sorry," Farrel says, "I should have put more thought into naming him. After Aurora, I just kind of got stuck for ideas."

Aouregan wipes the tears from her cheeks, "That's not it," she says, "It's just, I've missed so much. I've never seen them, or held them..."

"I'm sorry about that, too," Farrell sighs, "I should have been there before MorcuCorp got to you. I should have paid more attention to the dates, the calendar shift..."

"Don't," she whispers, "Don't blame yourself. My brother handed me over to the Landgraabs, and they handed me over to this MorcuCorp. You aren't to blame for any of that."

"But I could have..."

"It doesn't matter now," she says, squeezing his hand, "We're together again, and tomorrow we'll have our children back with us."

Farrell eventually falls asleep, but Aouregan has spent more than enough time in dreams recently and doesn't join him.

Getting out of bed, she stands by the window, looking out at this strange new world with it's smmoth, black roads and bright lit houses. She had hesitated to come here, when Farrell asked, but she was brought here anyway, kept locked away, and her children taken from her. There's no going back now, she knows, not while the Landgraabs hold power. No, this world is her home now, this world her children have been raised in. For their sake, and for Farrell, she will learn to love it here as much as she loves them.

Farrell wakes, the bed empty beside him, and jolts up, looking for Aouregan, afraid that MorcuCorp had stolen in and taken her from him once again.

"Come away from the window, my love," Farrell whispers, pulling her towards him, "Neighbors here are closer than you're used to, and the stay up much later."

She folds her arms around him, and the fear of waking to and empty bed followed by the relief of finding her still in the room with him finds expression in one long sob that wrenches out of him,  "I can't lose you again," he whispers, lips pressed to her neck, "I will never lose you again."

In the morning, they breakfast with the Hawksquills, discussing their plans for the day, and for the future. Farrell will go back to Storybrook with Moth to pick up his children and bring them here. Aouregan will stay with Noelle, who will find her some clothes and introduce her to the basics of modern living. Pearl and Ariel will begin house hunting in the neighborhood for the couple, and for herself.

"I want to go with you," Aouregan says as Farrell kisses her goodbye. "I don't like to be away from you, not so soon."

"I know," Farrell sighs, "But it's safer this way. I can slip in and out of town without much notice, but if I drive in and then take off with a strange woman, the whole town will start talking. It won't be long, I'll br back to you before you know it, I promise."

Farrell looks for his brother first thing, and finally finds him sitting on the floor of Kyle's room.

Farrell takes a seat beside Elliot, and hesitates before speaking. He'd practiced several ways to tell his brother that he's leaving town for good, but all the practice does him no good now that it's time to say it in person. Before he can get started, Elliot surprises him by telling him about his back injury and the end it's put to his career.

"That's awful," Farrell says.

"I'll get through it," Elliot sighs, "I'm having a harder time dealing with Shelly's reaction to all this. She's been acting like this something that happened to her, you know? I'm never going to be the basketball star she always wanted me to be. And, I'm wondering, did she ever love me at all? Or did she just latch onto me because I was a jock in high school?" Farrell stays quiet, so Elliot continues, "And she's putting this crap on Kyle, too, giving him a hard time because he wanted to take ballet."

"You didn't ask my opinion, but...I've never thought she was right for you," Farrell admits.

"Well, how was your symposium?" Elliots asks, changing the subject.

"What?" Farrell asks, and then remembers that he told Elliot he was going out of town for an inventor's symposium to cover his absence while he was infiltrating MorcuCorp's lab, "Yeah, there wasn't any symposium. I was rescuing my wife from MorcuCorp."

"You should have told me the truth; I would have come with you," Elliot chides his brother.

"That's why I lied," Farrell explains, "It turned out to be a trap. If my mother weren't a highly trained ninja assassin, I'd be locked up in a secret lab right now."

Elliot glances over his shoulder at Farrell, "You know how crazy that sounds?"

"Believe me, I know. I'm still not used to the crazy enough yet that I've stopped questioning it."

"But you got your wife back?"

"Yes," Farrell says, "MorcuCorp is still after us. They'll always be after us. So we're going to have to live in hiding. I'm just here to get my kids and say goodbye."

"Just like that?" Elliot asks.

"I don't have a choice," Farrell says, "I'll miss you."

"I'm not letting you go like that," Elliot says, "If you have to go into hiding somewhere, I'm going with you."

"Elliot, you can't just uproot yourself like that," Farrell protests.

"Why not?" Elliot answers, "My career is shot, but I've made enough to support us all wherever we go. My girls are too young to have grown roots here, and Kyle has just started school, he doesn't have any close friends yet to be torn away from."

"And Rochelle?" Farrell hesitates to ask.

Elliot's lips set in a hard frown, "You're my brother, Farrell. I'm not losing you. If Shelly can't see that..." He doesn't finish the thought, he doesn't have to.

Farrell nods, "I won't say no to you. But, I have to leave today, and I can't leave directions behind for you. If you're coming, it has to be now."

Elliot finds Shelly out in her vineyard. "I have news," he says, "Farrell has to move away, out of town."

"Oh, that's great!" Shelly enthuses, "Finally, we can have the place to ourselves!"

"I want to go with him."

"What?" Shelly's enthusiasm changes to petulance, "No. I'm not leaving."

"Shell, he's my brother, my family. I want to go with him."

"Look, I've put up with him living with us, I even put up with him dumping his bastards on our house, but now that he's finally leaving, there's no way I'm following. N-O!"

"We don't all have to live in the same house," Elliot says, "I just want to be in the same town as he is."

Shelly's eyes narrow into slits, "You love him more than me," she hisses.

"I never wanted this to be a contest between you. But, he's my brother, Shell. If you loved me you'd be more supportive of my decision."

"And what about my vineyard?" Shelly asks.

"You complain all the time about the work and that it hasn't paid off the way you wanted," Elliot points out, "Maybe it's time you found something else..."

"Maybe it's time I found someone else," she snaps back.

"Seriously, Shell? That's where you want to take this?"

"You're the one who's leaving. I'm not going anywhere, Elliot. You want to be my husband, then you stay. If you go chasing after your brother, then you do it without me, and I move on to find someone who'll put me first."

"Fine," Elliot says, "Stay then."

"What about the kids?" Shelly asks, "There's no way you're leaving me to raise three kids on my own."

"I'm not leaving my children," Elliot says, "They're coming with me."

"Then that's settled," Shelly says, turning her back on him in a huff.

"That's it?" Elliot gasps, "You just let your children go like that? You won't even fight for them? Do you even care about them?"

"Just go if you're going, Elliot," Shelly snarls.