The lady with a firm grasp on his right shoulder led him inside the large grey building. Just like everything else in this world, it was so different from anything he had ever seen. His decision to move on from Neverland had been a hard one, but he had given up hope. His father was never coming for him, and if he did, Bae wanted nothing to do with him. He never wanted to see his father again. Finally moving on to the 'world without magic' all but ensured that wish would be fulfilled.
As the women in the dark, crisp clothing, and stern voice guided him up a staircase she rambled on about mundane things that Bae let wash over him. It wasn't until she pushed him down onto a bench outside of an imposing black door with the words "Miriam Bletchley, social worker' that he begun to properly observe his surroundings.
Sitting next to him was a small, blonde girl with a splatter of blood and dirt on her jeans, and a twig sticking out of her mussed up hair.
Upon noticing the girls presence, the stern woman who had pushed Bae around all afternoon sighed an exasperated noise and addressed the child.
"Again, Emma! Miriam is not going to be impressed when she sees you. You're more trouble than your worth."
The girl scowled up at the woman. "Benjy Myles pushed me! And it's not my fault he's a rude, obnoxious bully! He wouldn't let me play on the jungle gym because I'm a girl, so it was very fair that I hit him."
The lady merely sneered at Emma, before turning back to Bae, "Stay here, until someone asks for you." she drawled, before adding harshly, "Do you understand?"
Bae nodded and she pivoted, walking away down the hall with her pointy shoes making loud noises on the hard floor. With nothing left to do, he sat, staring at the door in front of him, hoping he had made the right decision to come to this world. He had forgotten how nasty adults could be.
"Are you new?" he heard from the curious voice to his left.
Slowly turning to face the girl, Bae appraised her. She looked headstrong, appeared a bit scruffy and thin but compared to him, well cared for. "Huh?" he asked her when she continued staring up at him with her big green eyes.
"Are you new? To the system? I've been in it my whole life, my parents didn't want me. But I know almost everyone who's in it. Well at least everyone Mrs. Bletchley is assigned to. I spend a lot of time on this bench. I get in trouble a lot…" the girl rambled on and on. As she continued talking, describing the many families she had lived with, Bae began thinking about what she first said.
"My parents didn't want me." So this must be the place in this world where the abandoned kids go. The place where he would fit in, like he did in Neverland as part of Peter's group 'the lost boy's'.
Eventually the silence of the blonde child sitting next to him drew him out of his thoughts. She was staring at him again, this time with a wary glare. Bae cleared his throat and asked "sorry… what?"
She rolled her eyes before relenting. "I said…. where are you from?"
This question startled Bae, he was not expecting it. In Neverland, the lost boys were always just regarded as lost. No one cared where he came from, or who his father was. They stuck together regardless. Maybe this place was different. He turned his head back around to glance at Emma for a second before murmuring, "you wouldn't know it."
This seemed to only spur her on. "I'm 8 not an idiot!" she exclaimed before continuing. "I've studied the countries of the world in school and I know all 50 states of America, just tell me!"
Bae stared at her, wondering whether to trust her or not. What if she had heard of his father, surely then no one would want to help him. But the look she was giving him was too hard to resist. Her big eyes were silently begging to know his story and he couldn't help but divulge her the information she wanted.
Clearing his throat awkwardly, Bae looked away from her. "I'm from Neverland… well, originally the Enchanted forest realm, but more recently… Neverland."
She was silent for a moment, and Bae hoped he hadn't scared her. But instead he heard a loud derisive snort. "Yeah right. And I'm Alice from wonderland."
Bae's heart soared. "Really?" he asked looking at her in a new light.
"No!" she stated contemptuously. "Tell me the truth, where are you from!"
Bae turned his body away from her, not knowing what else to say if she didn't believe the truth.
"It is the truth" he murmured.
"aha…" he heard her say quietly. "And you expect me to believe that you are from some fairytale?"
He turned back to face her slowly. "What's a fairytale?"
She gaped at him. Her mouth wide open and her eyes wide. "Seriously? You don't know?"
Bae shook his head.
Desperate to remind him, Emma started speaking a mile a minute, "fairytales, as in kiddie stories parents are meant to tell you to teach you right from wrong! Cinderella, Snow White, Little Red Riding hood, Peter Pan ... That one with the creepy dwarf thing… Rumpelstiltskin!... beauty and the-"
"Wait what was that last one?" Bae choked out in surprise, effectively shutting up the girl's tirade.
She cocked an eyebrow at him in curiosity, "which one?" she asked "Rumpelstiltskin?"
"Yes yes…" Bae chocked out. "How do you know that one?"
"It's in a book at school… I read it… it was just a story…it's not real." She said slowly, as if he was a small child, younger than herself. "Please tell me you don't believe in Fairytales and Santa Claus and the Easter bunny! Because you're like… old. Big kids aren't supposed to believe in that stuff." She finished skeptically.
"Well…. No" Bae replied, deciding to conform to this child's view of the world. She may be younger than him, but she had lived here longer. If she said big kids don't believe in fairytales then he shouldn't believe in these stories derived from a place he once lived. Obviously in this world his life was just that, only a story.
Suddenly he became very nervous as to what would happen to him now. If he couldn't convince an 8 year old that he was from another world, and traveled here by magic, how was an adult ever going to believe him? Perhaps the lack of magic in this world erased all knowledge and belief that it even existed elsewhere? If so, he had succeeded in his plan. His father would never find him that was for sure. But on the other hand, what was going to happen to him now?
"Hey Emma…" he asked the girl quietly.
"How do you know my name!" she snapped, suddenly defensive.
Putting his hands in the air Bae quickly replied, "That woman who brought me here said it! Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you!"
As she eyed him warily, he smiled at her. The first smile he had worn since he arrived here. He needed her, he needed her trust, and he had never meant to scare her.
Eventually she calmed, and he decided to ask his question. "What are they going to do to me in that room?" he begun quietly.
She looked at him, appraising him gently. "Just ask you questions. They will need all of your personal details. They will probably try and find your parents if they are still alive… but I don't know. My parents abandoned me when I was a baby so I never needed an induction analysis."
Sympathy welled up in him. This sweet innocent child had never met her parents. And despite how horrible his father had become after taking the power of the dark one, his papa who had raised him had been a good man. His mother had also been a comforting figure before she died. But this little girl had never had anyone, besides this 'Mrs. Bletchley' and the stern woman from earlier.
Clearing his throat, Bae moved on desperate to know what was coming for him. "What kind of details will they need?"
Emma sighed, her eyes darting up to the clock at the end of the hallway. "Name, age, date of birth… all that normal stuff… but I don't think you'll be able to pull the whole, 'I'm from fairytale land' thing with them. Because they would either get really angry at you or send you to a crazy house."
Sighing in defeat Bae decided that Emma could help him. He did not want to be deemed crazy. "Well, where I'm from is… uh … south of the border, and green. You said you studied the world… where do you think I'm from?"
"Hmm…" Emma thought. "Maybe… New Jersey? The garden state?" she answered, looking accomplished when he smiled and nodded.
New Jersey Bae thought. I need to remember that. His age he already knew: 14. He had been 14 now for over 200 years, it was hard to forget. His date of birth, 19th of September, was hopefully the same in this world. However, his name… his name would be the problem, it was too obviously medieval, compared to 'Emma'.
Next to him, she sighed and whined. "I'm bored. I've been here for over an hour! Mrs. Bletchley hates me."
Thinking quickly, Bae came up with an idea. "How about we play a game?"
She perks up a bit at the thought. "Ok! What game?"
"Hmm…" Bae paused. "I know your name, but you don't know mine. Why don't you try and guess what it is?"
After a second of disbelief and another glance towards the clock, Emma decided to play.
It took her a few minutes to get started, but once she did, she was a fountain of possibilities for him. "Edward, Mark, Henry, Harrison, Keaton, James, Cassidy, Bruce, Conner and Neal," are the options she had sprouted when the door in front of them suddenly opened.
When a large, unfriendly looking woman with a moustache finally stepped out of the room like an ogre, Emma cowered slightly beside him. "Miss Swan… we meet again. What a surprise." She wheezed sarcastically, before turning towards Bae. "I'll be out for you in 5 minutes boy. Don't move a muscle."
And with a final reluctant glance over her shoulder at Bae, Emma wass ushered into the office. As she is punished, Bae constructed himself a new identity, hoping he could fit into this strange new world where the only friendly person he'd met was a small 8 year old girl named Emma.
Hi people who decided to read this story, you are awesome, especially if you are still reading this right know. good job. pat on the back. i love you. anyway the idea for this story came from someone on tumblr (don't remember who... sorry) but they said something along the lines of 'my head cannon is that emma and bae met briefly when they were kids in the foster system' ... as soon as i saw that, i could not get the idea out of my head. so my incomplete uni assignment thanks you mysterious tumblr person... :p ... anyway... i hope you enjoyed this, and i would love to hear your thoughts on how it went. :D