Note: AU ideas tend to jump out at me, and usually they're little more than a cool "what if" type scenario. Here's an exception.
Chapter 1: New Arrivals
"WELCOME TO STORYBROOKE" read the sign.
Original, thought Emma Margaret. Her brother leaned over.
"At least we know we're in the right place" he grinned.
"Good for us," said Emma.
[X]
Emma didn't remember of course, but she knew it wasn't the first time she'd been in the area. When she first arrived in this world she had arrived on the outskirts of the town. Though since her mother was very pregnant with her at the time, it didn't really count as being there.
Snow White, of course, wasn't just pregnant; she was very extremely pregnant when she came through the wardrobe. But she hadn't lost her keen eye, and the little boy in the green hat, red pants and bow tie certainly stood out, even on the strange road they had arrived on.
"Pinocchio?" she said, with recognition, "How did you get here?"
The kid, unsurprisingly, was terrified.
"M-m-m-my father. He put me in the wardrobe."
"But it could only hold one," said Snow, not fully grasping what was going on, "It could only…unless…"
"The blue fairy lied," said Pinocchio. If Snow White had known more of Pinocchio's history, she might have laughed at the irony.
"It could hold two?" and then Snow's eyes flashed, if just for a second, with anger, "Charming could have come with me? Why…did…she…lie."
"W…w…w…w…we…" Pinocchio trailed off. He clearly frightened of Snow.
"It's okay," Snow lied, "you can tell me later. For now," she said standing up with considerable difficulty, "We need to figure out what we are going to do with ourselves in this new land."
[X]
A few things went wrong over the next day or so. When Snow White was asked her name, and she gave it, she got laughed at, so she gave the name "Mary Margaret", a previous alias. And thus she became Miss. Margaret.
Building an identity from the ground up for herself, and for Pinocchio, not to mention her daughter, was a complicated process. In a universe that required Social Security Numbers, Driver's Licenses, Tax Returns, proof of residency, Snow White had none of these things, and no money to get them from.
And yet, somehow they managed. Snow made a home for herself, her daughter Emma, and her new adoptive son Pinocchio, now going by August. She found a place in Philadelphia, a room, a life.
[X]
Emma drove past the sign.
"Now," she said, "time to get these people their memories back."
