“Doctor!” Emma Swan’s voice came from somewhere further south on the beach. It jogged him from his angry haze and gave him the wherewithal to open his fist and let go of the dust that used to be Mistress Oakdown’s heart. Some was carried away by the salty breeze, but most landed on the sand. When the high tide rolled in, it would be lost in the sea forever.

The Doctor brushed his still-wet hair back from his eyes and knelt by Clara’s side when Emma, Killian, and Regina crested the hill. “We’re—oh, God.”

All three of them froze when they came upon the scene. Killian had the bravery to move first, walking forward and kneeling on the other side of Clara’s body. “I’m so sorry, mate.”

The sound of high heels sinking into the sand approached the Doctor from behind. Regina’s voice had a slight shake when she asked, “What happened?”

“The witch who cursed me. She found her way here and saw I wasn’t suffering anymore, so she took it upon herself to make me suffer again.” He lifted Clara’s body into his arms but felt his strength break. Killing Mistress Oakdown had done nothing to right the witch’s grievous wrong. “She crushed her heart. I held Clara as she died.”

Finally Emma approached the small gathering. “Where’s the witch now?”

“She had a magic bean. She used it to escape.”

He might as well tell them what he did. Confess his crime, hand over the magic beans, and get out of everyone’s way. He didn’t have Clara to look after and love, and he sure as hell couldn’t stand up to anti-magic sentiment after what he’d just used his abilities to do.

But the shame of his act coiled inside him, boiling hot and waiting for him to be alone so he could retch. No one could know he did this. No one could know how easy it was for him to do evil.

Clara must have kept him in check. He couldn’t be allowed to continue without her. And what worth was life if he didn’t have Clara to spend his with?

“Regina. Please, just—rip out my heart and crush it. Please.”

“What?” Killian’s hook slid onto the Doctor’s arm. “You can’t just give up like that. That’s not what Clara would have wanted.”

The Doctor glared at him. “You went on a century-long quest for vengeance when Milah died, so you’re not exactly the most qualified to counsel for grief, Killian.”

Killian shrunk back and Regina walked around them to crouch beside the pirate. Her mouth was taut and her eyes uneasy. “Why did you ask me that, Doctor?”

His angry glare softened. “Because you’re the only one who’d be willing to.”

“I can’t do that, but I might be able to do something. Sorry about this.” She reached across Clara’s body and plunged her hand into the Doctor’s chest, yanking his heart out.

“Regina!” Emma exclaimed as the Doctor flinched violently. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Just wait a minute,” she said sternly, taking the Doctor’s heart into both of her hands. With a grimace, she wrenched his heart into two halves. The Doctor winced and Killian and Emma both objected, but Regina returned one half of his heart to the Doctor and then pushed the other into Clara’s chest.

For one long moment, everything was silent and still again. Then Clara drew a deep breath and opened her eyes.

“Doctor?” she whispered, curling his shirt in her fingers. “Oh, stars, are you dead, too?”

Shock and joy burst from the Doctor’s heart. “No, sweetheart. We’re both alive and well.” He cried as he pulled Clara into an embrace tight enough to feel his heartbeat, the heartbeat they now shared.

“I don’t understand,” Clara said as her arms snaked around him. “It was so painful, and then I was in the underworld—I shouldn’t be back. I shouldn’t be back.”

“It’s okay. Regina did it. You’re okay.”

Clara unraveled herself from her fiancé enough to look at the mayor, who had stood and averted her eyes. “Regina?”

“You and the Doctor share his heart,” she explained. “As far as I know, it works only with a pair of true lovers.”

Clara’s gaze turned back to the Doctor. She touched her chest, awed. “Thank you.”

The Doctor averted his eyes. “Thank Regina. It was her idea. She’s the one who really saved you.” A smile returned to his face as he offered, “Let’s get you home, love.”

“What about Mistress Oakdown?” Her eyes suddenly went round as saucers. “Oh, God, all those terrible things I did, trying to hurt you—I almost killed you. I’m so sorry, Doctor. I shouldn’t—”

“You couldn’t stop it. You were under her control.” The Doctor swallowed. “And Mistress Oakdown is gone. She escaped through the portal of a magic bean, and now that she thinks she’s exacted her revenge, I doubt she’s coming back.”

Clara’s brow furrowed. “Are you sure? Do you know if she had any more magic beans to get here?”

The Doctor steeled his guilty conscience. “She won’t come to Storybrooke again. I’m sure of it.”

The whole world went still. The Doctor (if he could still call himself that) heard the waves lapping against the shore from miles away. He and Clara had been through too much together to just end like this. They were going to be married, they were going to be happy, they were going to have the life robbed of them in the Enchanted Forest—after everything they had been through, how could the universe permit this act? How could one dark player from the Doctor’s past resurface and kill his bright star of goodness? How could his light die?

Dark purple smoke floated past him and out to sea. Behind him, Mistress Oakdown said, “You can make a scrying pool out of anything. A large bowl and a kitchen tap do wonderfully. I watched her die like I was right there.”

Her footsteps were soft in the sand as she walked around to see Clara’s face. “Well, at least you were smart enough to get away from me. She was far too trusting from the beginning which made ripping out her heart was easier than I thought it would be. Honestly, so little training in dark magic.”

The Doctor closed Clara’s eyes with the tenderness of a mother. God, she had wanted to be a mother. She wanted children so badly—it was just never the right time for it. Why hadn’t they realized there was so little time left for her?

The Doctor lowered her carefully to the ground and stood like an old man. Mistress Oakdown’s satisfaction was nearly tangible; she was grinning like the madwoman she was as she gazed at Clara’s body.

“Now you know what it’s like to lose someone you love. How does it feel to watch them wither away with nothing stopping them?”

Mistress Oakdown was suddenly magically flung down to the sand. While she was dazed, the Doctor stalked over her, bent down, and wrenched her heart out of her chest.

“It feels like that, since you’re so keen to know.”

Her buggy eyes stared up at him with a mix of surprise and anger, shocked at the violent strike back. The Doctor’s dark gaze was her only answer.

He stood and moved away from her to give her room. “Stand up and tell me how you got to Storybrooke. You sure as hell weren’t in the Enchanted Forest when the Dark Curse was cast.”

Mistress Oakdown obeyed and said, “I had a magic bean hidden away. I came to this world when the last corner of the Enchanted Forest started withering away.”

“Do you have any more beans?”

“Two or three.”

“Give them to me.”

Mistress Oakdown reached into her pocket, pulled out a sparse handful of magic beans, and offered them to the Doctor. He pocketed most of them and threw one far out to sea, and when he heard the unmistakable whoosh of air emit from the new portal, he turned back to Mistress Oakdown and said, “You’re going to swim out to that portal and go to whatever new world awaits you, without your heart.”

The Doctor used Clara’s suffering to his advantage and pushed Mistress Oakdown out of the way so he could grab Clara and spirit them out of there. Dark blue smoke billowed up around them and the Doctor thanked the universe that Clara had recently uncovered her mother’s book that taught about teleportation spells. They hadn’t had time to practice, so he had to hope a sufficient understanding of the theory would be enough.

Apparently, it was. Their cozy kitchen had melted out of existence and Storybrooke’s beach quickly replaced it. Clara tore out of the Doctor’s grip the moment they materialized knee-deep in the waves.

“You know it’s me, Clara!”

“Knowing that doesn’t stop it!” With aching eyes, she launched herself at him and knocked him to the sand, hands wrapped tightly around his throat. The Doctor struggled to pry her fingers away as each salty wave washed over him, but was forced to give up that strategy and rely on the only weapon he had left: magic.

A blast exploded from his palms with enough force to knock Clara away. His head broke the surface of the water right as he heard her land with a splash—she’d be back on her feet soon enough, so he had to move faster than her. He climbed to his feet, sought Clara out, and yanked her up, heaving her over his shoulder in a fireman’s lift. He waded back to shore and set her on a bed of washed-up seaweed from high tide, which he magically commanded to wrap around her wrists and ankles. They were safe from each other for now.

Tears poured from Clara’s eyes as she gazed up at him, though Mistress Oakdown’s control forced her to struggle against her bonds. “I’m so sorry, Doctor,” she choked out as he knelt beside her. “I’m trying to fight it, I swear I am.”

“It’s okay. It’s okay.” He pulled his phone out of his pocket that had somehow survived multiple drownings and gave Killian a ring. “Killian? It’s the Doctor. Clara’s under heart control right now (I don’t know how else to put it) and is trying to kill me.

“What?”

“I’ll explain later. Find Emma and Regina and bring them to Storybrooke Beach as soon as you can. Hurry!”

“We’re on our way, mate!”

The Doctor returned his phone to his pocket as Clara pleaded, “Doctor, you need to get the hell out of Storybrooke. Get away from the witch, the magic, all of it.”

“I’m not leaving you. Especially not with her.” He sat there, helpless and afraid, and did the only thing it occurred to him to do: he pulled Clara’s body into his lap and held her. He could see in her eyes that she was terrified of being close to him, should she break free of her bonds and obey Mistress Oakdown’s orders. But how in the world was he supposed to let her lie there so afraid?

“There’s got to be something we can do.” Nothing for it but to brainstorm. “When Killian and the others get here, they can stay to look after you and I can go back for your heart. I might be able to win it back from her, if I’m clever enough.”

“You can’t! She’ll kill you!”

“What other choice do we have? Do you have?”

Clara’s mouth twisted with uncertainty. He could see in her eyes that she knew she was caught. So she said, “Take Regina with you. She’s had far more practice with magic in combat, and she—ah!”

Her bound hands reached up to clutch her chest. Her eyes squeezed shut. “Doctor! Doctor, it hurts!”

He immediately severed the seaweed (as if that would help) and scrambled for her pulse. Could she even have one if her heart was outside her body? “What’s wrong? Tell me what’s wrong, Clara. You’re gonna be fine—you’ll be fine!”