AN: Ok so this is my first SwanQueen story. Its been in my head for a while now. I've done Calzona stories before but their whole fandom is breaking my heart and making me loose faith. This story will NOT follow the show completely. I know there are similar stories out there but this is mine and with a twist. So, I figured I would try this out. Please be gentle with the feedback lol. I don't have a BETA for this so let me know if I need one or not. ENJOY! :)

AU: I own nothing! I wish I did but I don't. Life goes on unfortunately.

Growing up as a foster kid, you learn real quick to never get your hopes up or to even trust in others. My whole life has been about running to one place or another. I'm a runner. It's the only thing I know how to do. My first foster parents learned real quickly that blood is more important than anything. I was sent back once they found out they would have their own kids who would share DNA.

After the third foster home I had given up hope and decided that I didn't need anyone other than me. By the time I was sixteen I realized I liked girls more than guys. Somehow when a family finds that out they tend to act like you have a disease or something. I learned to hide who I truly was and instead be something I'm not, just to know what it felt like to have someone want me.

After getting out of the foster system I learned how to make it out on my own, from finding odd end jobs to having a roof over my head. Not many foster kids have college degrees where I come from so all I had was my GED. A GED that I barely got with my grades and just never going to class. Sometimes I wish I had tried harder to do better. I never wanted to end up as your typical foster kid who didn't make it in the system and let things beat me down.

There was a moment in my life that I decided I would prove them wrong. The people who said I was just a messed up kid or that I was foster kid. To the people who told me that because my parents didn't want me that no one would. I would prove them wrong but most of all I would prove to myself that I'm more than just that little kid that no one wanted.

So that's how I ended up here, staring at a kid who claims to be mine that I gave up ten years ago. The same kid who was never supposed to know me because after giving him up it never would have been fair to just come back into his life. Also, no kid would want an ex-convict as a parent. This is the exact opposite of closed adoption. This is everything I didn't wish for.

Henry pushes past me to get into the apartment as if he was invited in. He was looking around the place like all curious kids are.

"Whoa! Hey, kid! Kid! Kid! I don't have a son! Where are your parents?" I demand. It's not like this thing is actually a normal situation. Most Closed adoptions don't end with kids showing up out of the blue.

Henry turns to me and says, "Ten years ago. Did you give up a baby for adoption? That was me." And that's when everything came crashing down. It's as if all the air was knocked from my lungs.

"I'm…uh… just give me a minute." I stumble over my words as I stumble over my feet. I turn and head to the closest door which turns out to be the bathroom. I look at myself in the mirror and all I see is fear on my face and in my eyes.

Henry yells from the other side of the door.

"Hey, you have any juice? Never mind, found some." I try to compose myself and steady my breathing as I turn to the door and exit the bathroom.

Right when I open the door I see Henry drinking straight out of the container of juice like I'm not a stranger and as if he has no manners at all. All I can do is stare at him wishing he would just disappear.

"You know, we should probably get going." His voice breaks me out of my thoughts. I look at him with a confused look. Not exactly getting the meaning of what he's saying.

"Going where?" I ask.

"I want you to come home with me." Henry says like it's the most natural thing in the world and as if he's known me his whole life and trusts me to take him anywhere.

"Okay, kid. I'm calling the cops." I head towards the phone and just as I'm about to dial.

"Then I'll tell them you kidnapped me." The kid has some guts I have to admit. It's starting to make me mad with how bold he is. I try to get rid of the memories swimming in my mind where when I was his age I was acting the same way.

"And they'll believe you because I'm your birth mother." I let out a reluctant sigh

"Yep," Henry says, popping the "P" at the end.

As I look at him I realize that this kid isn't going to scare me with his empty threats because it will just cause problems for him in the end. And also because I can tell he's lying to me.

"You're not going to do that." I say with a smirk.

"Try me." I see the little falter after he says that.

"You're pretty good. But here's the thing – there's not a lot I'm great at in life. I have one skill. Let's call it a superpower. I can tell when anyone is lying and you, kid, are." I look back down at the phone and dial the first number.

"Wait… Please don't call the cops. Please, come home with me." He pleads with me. I think real quickly of what the biggest harm of me giving him a lift home. Well, other than getting arrested if he tries to tell the cops I took him.

"Where's home?" I ask. He looks up to me with a hopeful face. Too bad I don't feel as hopeful as him. I'll take him home, explain what happened and hope I'm never in this position again.

"Storybrooke, Maine."

"Storybrooke? Seriously?" I look at him like he's crazy

"Mmhmm." Well at least someone thinks that name is normal.

"Alrighty, then. Let's get you back to Storybrooke." I turn to grab a couple of things for the trip and get ready as Henry patiently waits by the door.

(Emma and Henry are driving in a car.)

"I'm hungry. Can we stop somewhere?" Henry asks while we are driving down the streets of Boston. Right then I pull the car over and turn to look at him to make him understand that this isn't a game and it's not for fun and that it's only a business trip. Part of me believes that its complete crap.

"Look kid, this is not a road trip. We're not stopping for snacks."

"Why not?" He pouts slightly that I find annoying.

"Quit complaining, kid. Remember – I could have put your butt on a bus. I still could." I say, letting him know I mean business.

"You know I have a name? It's Henry." He makes it sound like he's hurt when he's the one who barged into my life without an invite. I never asked for any of this.

As we're driving down the streets I notice the book that he's clinging onto since I saw him. It looks like an old one by the way its leather bound and worn.

"What's that?" I ask. He looks as if he's debating on telling me the truth or not.

"I'm not sure you're ready." Henry finally answers as he stares out onto the road ahead of us

"I'm not ready for some fairy tales?" I scoff at him as I try to understand what exactly this kid's deal is. Henry turns to look at me as if I've offended him with stating the obvious.

"They're not fairy tales. They're true. Every story in this book actually happened."

"Of course they did." Yeah and I'm really a princess. I let a small laugh at the joke running through my head.

"Use your superpower. See if I'm lying." I knew that would bight me in the ass once I told him that.

"Just because you believe something, doesn't make it true."

"That's exactly what makes it true. You should know more than anyone." I can't believe the nerve of this kid. He actually acts like he knows me when really he doesn't.

"Why's that?" I ask.

"Because you're in this book." Ok now he's just crazy.

"Oh, kid. You've got problems."

"Yep. And you're going to fix them." He turns to look back out the window as I drive on.

(Emma and Henry finally arrive in Storybrooke.)

"Okay, kid. How about an address?" I ask.

"Forty-four Not Telling You Street." Henry says I as I slam the breaks on my car. I've had enough of this by now as I get out of the car and slam my door on the way out. I hear another car door slam and I turn to see the kid has also gotten out of the car.

"Look, it's been a long night and it's almost… 8:15?" I say as I'm looking at the clock with a confused expression.

"That clock hasn't moved my whole life. Time's frozen here." Henry states.

I turn to look at him. "Excuse me?"

"The Evil Queen did it with her curse. She sent everyone from the Enchanted Forest here." Ok seriously again with the fairytale stuff.

"Okay, the Evil Queen sent a bunch of fairy tale characters here." Sure ill play along with this.

"Yeah, and now they're trapped." Henry eyes lit up as he thinks I believe him.

"Frozen in time, stuck in Storybrooke, Maine. That's what you're going with?"

"It's true!" Henry insists.

"Then why doesn't everybody just leave?" I ask.

"They can't. If they try, bad things happen." I hear someone call out henrys name and I turn to look and see who. A man with a dog approaches us as he looks to me with suspicious eyes.

"Henry! What are you doing here? Is everything alright?" The guy asks with true concern. Obviously he knows Henry pretty well.

"I'm fine, Archie."

"Who's this?" the man nods his head as he turns to acknowledge me.

"Just someone trying to give him a ride home." I say, trying to keep this simple.

"She's my mom, Archie." He looks surprised when Henry says that.

"Oh. I see."

"You know where he lives?" I ask, trying to fill out the sound of awkwardness.

"Yeah, sure. Just, ah, right up on Mifflin Street. The Mayor's house is the biggest one on the block." The last part catches my attention. "Mayors house"

"You're the Mayor's kid?" I turn to look at him with hard eyes.

"Uh, maybe." At least he has enough sense to look like he's in trouble

"Hey, where were you today, Henry? Because you missed your session."

"Oh, I forgot to tell you. I went on a field trip." Henry says.

"Henry. What did I tell you about lying? Giving into one's dark side never accomplishes anything." Well that just sounds like a bunch of crazy talk. Should the kid be seeing someone who talks like that.

"Oookay. Well, I really should be getting him home." I steer henry towards the passenger side of my car.

"Yeah, sure. Well, listen. Um. Have a good night and, uh, you be good, Henry." Archie turn to walk away and I hear the slightest sound of him whistling.

"So that's your shrink." I state.

"I'm not crazy." Yeah sure you're not. It's totally normal for one to believe there town is full of fairytale characters.

"Didn't say that. Just, he doesn't seem 'cursed' to me. Maybe he's just trying to help you."

"He's the one who needs help because he doesn't know." Oh boy is all I can think

"That he's a fairy tale character?"

"None of them do. They don't remember who they are." Kids with their imaginations huh.

"Convenient. Alright, I'll play. Who's he supposed to be?" I ask trying to enlighten the kid.

"Jiminy Cricket." Henry says like it's the most normal thing in the world.

"Right, the lying thing. Thought your nose grew a little bit." I try to tease him a little.

"I'm not Pinocchio!" Hmm, this kid sure does take this seriously.

"Course you're not. Because that would be ridiculous." I say as we start down the road.

As we pull up to his house I can't help but be impressed. At least things worked out better for him than it did for me when I was his age.

"Please don't take me back there." Henry pleads as he turns to look at me.

"I have to. I'm sure your parents are worried sick about you." Even if I took him there is no way I would risk getting out into that kind of trouble again.

"I don't have parents. Just a mom and she's evil." Oh the pity party. This kid needs to be thankful for what he does have.

"Evil? That's a bit extreme, isn't it?" Who doesn't think their parents aren't just a tad bit cruel at some point in their life? But evil? That is just harsh.

"She is. She doesn't love me. She only pretends to." Yeah that's why you live in a mansion and wear nice clothes and have a table with food on it. Part of my feels sympathy for the kid because there must be a true reason as to why he acts like this and why he seems scared to go into that house.

"Kid… I'm sure that's not true." I say as I hear a door open and hills clicking on the pavement. I'm still turned to Henry as I hear a voice that calls out to him, a voice that stops me in my spot as if my feet are stuck in quick sand and I have nowhere to go. I turn to look at the woman who has haunted me for the past five years, the one who broke my heart as if she never had one.

"Henry! Henry… Are you okay? Where have you been? What happened?" She hasn't even noticed me yet because all her attention is on the son who has been missing. Yeah, she seems real evil. But then I think what kind of person she showed herself to be towards me and I start to think maybe the kid isn't so wrong after all about his life. I notice a man standing behind her dressed like a law enforcement officer

"I found my real mom!" Henry yells as he runs off into the house. The shock and hurt that flashes on her face almost make me feel sorry for her. Like I said though, almost.

Finally she looks up at me and disbelief crosses her face this time. I imagine I was the last person on this earth that she would ever expect to show up on her door step with her son claiming he found his real mom.

"Emma. Y-you're Henry's birth mother?" I can hear the hurt and doubt in her voice. I don't know why. It's not like I planned all this. But then again knowing her shed think I had planned this all from the beginning.

I open my mouth to say something. Anything. But I end standing there like the idiot I am. Even after all this time she still makes me speechless. As I stand with her, face to face, all I can think about is the past. How she was one of the few people I have ever shown my true self around and held nothing back yet to only break me in every way possible.

She's just standing there waiting for me to say something. But looking at her now and the life she's built for herself. The big fancy house with the great job and all it entitles. I can't say anything, because she moved on without me. I bet she's never even thought about me after all these years. With that final thought in my head I do what I do best. The first and very last lesson my parents taught me, the one constant thing in my life is to run so with that I turn and walk away.

Ok so not much happened in this chapter but the next one gets into is a little more. I was thinking of throwing in some flashbacks, maybe? Review so I know if I should continue. Hopefully the next chapter will be up in a couple days.