written with reneexoxtlyes

Chapter 1

"Who could that be?" Snow asked Charming after the doorbell rang.

He shrugged in response. The two of them went up to the door. Snow looked through the peep hole.

"It's Regina."

Charming looked at her confused, "What does she want?"

"I-I-I don't know," Snow stammered.

She opened the door, "Regina, what brings you here?"

Regina could feel the awkwardness in her question, but chose to ignore it.

"I wanted to see Henry," she said, a somewhat fake smile plastered on her face.

Snow and Charming looked at each other, both of them realizing no one informed Regina of Emma, Gold, and Henry's trip to New York.

"Henry's not here," Snow said quietly.

A slight wave of panic came over Regina. Luckily, she had a great poker face. Showing any type of emotion wasn't allowed, especially not in front of them.

"What do you mean he's not here? Where is he?"

"Gold took him and Emma to New York," Charming answered.

Regina couldn't hide the confusion in her facial expression, "New York? What are they doing there?"

"Gold had something he needed to take care of. He wanted Emma's help. Henry wanted to come along."

Typical Henry. As many times as she discouraged his curiosity, his thirst for it only grew stronger. At the moment, so did hers. She had to follow them. She needed to know what on earth could they be doing.

She plastered another smile on her face, "Well, thank you for the information."

Regina turned around, hearing the door close behind her.

In New York...

Emma, Henry, and Gold are looking at a map of the City of New York. There's a red dot drawn on it.

Emma looks up with Gold and Henry soon following, "I think this is the place."

"So what's the plan?" Henry asked excited.

"We get him to talk to me," Gold said before walking in.

Back in Storybrooke...

Regina's sitting at her desk, thinking of her next move. She had to go to New York, but how was she going to get there without been seen by them? She especially didn't want regular humans seeing magic. That was the last thing she needed or wanted. She sighed as she looked blankly at her desk. She knew she had to pretend to be of this world and take the bus or the train there. As much as she hated public transportation, she couldn't risk being identified by her car.

With a wave of her hand, a cloud of black and purple smoke appeared, manifesting a train ticket. All see needed to do was get there.

Later on that day...

She had been on their trail an hour after she had arrived. There was one thing Regina could thank Snow for, strengthening her ability to hunt for her prey. She was looking around an alleyway. There she saw Gold and Henry talking. The question was, where the hell was Emma?

"Stop!" she heard a voice cry out. That voice sounded familiar to her.

Regina caught a glimpse of familiar blonde locks. She followed behind quickly, but slow enough to not be caught. It wasn't long before a loud thump could be heard.

Neal?" Emma said as she looked at him with wide eyes and a dropped jaw.

Regina smiled mischievously. She could tell by the look on Emma's face that this was someone from her past that she didn't want to run into. It made her even more curious as to who he was. Satisfied with what she saw, she vanished in a cloud of black and violet. Soon Henry and Gold ran up to them.

"Is this him?" Henry asked, "Is this your son?"

Henry turned to Gold, who looked at Neal with such amazement in his eyes.

"Bae?" was all Gold could get out.

"What are you doing here?" Neal asked.

Gold could hear the disgust in his voice. Part of his heart broke at that moment. He knew the reunion between him and Bae wouldn't be exactly, pleasant. It didn't stop him from wanting that, though.

"You're Baelfire?" Emma asked in disbelief.

"You're him!" Henry exclaimed.

Bae turned to Henry, "Who's the kid?"

Emma stood there, not knowing how to say what she wanted to say.

"Emma's my mom."

Bae looked at Emma, trying to put two and two together.

"How old are you?"

"I'm ten."

Bae's face, along with Emma and Gold's faces, went pale.

"Is he? Is he my...?"

Emma nodded, unhappy at how the truth came out. Henry looked at Emma.

"Wait! Is he my real dad?"

Once again, Emma nodded.

"But, I thought he was...dead."

Bae's eyes grew extremely wide, "Dead?" he turned to Emma, "you told our son that I was dead?"

"We'll have this conversation later."

"No! We're going to have it now!"

Emma sighed, turning to Gold, "Can you take Henry, exploring?"

"I don't know-" Bae started.

"Do you want to talk or not?"

"I'm not a babysitter."

Emma turned to Gold, "You do me this favor, I'll work on yours, deal?"

"Emma, I don't think it's such a good idea."

Ignoring him, Emma extended her hand. Hesitantly, Gold extended his hand out, "Fine."

Emma and Bae watched as Henry and Gold left the apartment.

"Why the hell would you say I was dead?" he asked as soon as the door slammed shut.

"What other choice did I have? I didn't know where your were! You weren't when I went to jail. I didn't have a way to tell you I was pregnant."

Bae held his head down and sighed, "Look, I'm sorry. I should have taken the fall for the robbery. When August came to visit me-"

"Wait? August? Brown hair, rides a motorcycle?"

"Yeah."

"He came to visit you?"

"He told me to let you take the fall. He said you had a destiny to fulfill and if I loved you, to not stop you from it. Besides, he had something on me."

"What could be so bad that you couldn't have gone to jail yourself?"

"He knew I was Baelfire. He threatened to tell my dad where I was. I couldn't let that happen. Not after all he put me through."

Emma sighed in disbelief. She could feel the tears forming in her eyes. She did everything in her power to not let them fall. She looked away, wiping a few stray tears, "Do you have any idea what hell I went through? You were the only reason I didn't feel so alone, and you took it away from me. I was eighteen, Neal! Eighteen! I sat in my cell day in and day out crying. I felt more betrayed by you than I did my parents. Once I found out I was pregnant with Henry, I didn't know what to do. And as much as it pained me to give him up, I did. I wanted to keep him, because there was still a part of me that loved you."

He stood there, speechless. She was right. He had abandoned her. He could have stuck around. If he could live with his dad being the dark one, why was he so afraid of someone he didn't even know?

"Look, I'm sorry," he said after a few minutes, "I shouldn't have left. I know I can't make it up to you and Henry, but now that I know, I want to get to know Henry. I want to be a better father than my dad was to me."

"How do I know you'll stay?"

"You won't unless you give me a chance."

Streets of Manhattan

"I can't believe you're my grandpa," Henry said, in a daze.

"You and me both."

The two walked in silence. Despite the honking of horns, the various conversations around them, all of it faded into the background. Henry felt a small growling in his stomach.

"I'm hungry," Henry's eyes soon landed on a hotdog cart, "Can you get me a hotdog, please?"

Gold sighed, "Yeah, let's go."

In an Alleyway nearby

Regina peered from the corner looking and Gold and Henry. Gold handed the vendor the money and received a hotdog in exchange. The smell of the food and sewage didn't sit well with Regina. She watched as Henry took a bite. Her heart softened once she saw the smile on Henry's face. It saddened her to know that he wasn't happy with her. It angered her, in fact. She vanished in the same cloud as before. She had seen enough. It was time to go back to Storybrooke, she had work to do.

That's the end of the chapter