I do not own Once Upon A Time
I turn the music up, I got my records on, from underneath the rubble sing a rebel song. Don't want to see another generation drop- I'd rather be a comma than a full stop. Maybe I'm in the black, maybe I'm on my knees, maybe I'm in the gap between the two trapezes. But my heart is beating and my pulses start, cathedrals in my heart. - "Every Drop Is Waterfall" Coldplay
"Daze!" Emma's voice called as I heard the front door close shut and I quickly struck the match and lit the two candles that sat on top of the cake. "I've got a surprise for you!" She called out as her heals clicked across the wooden floors of our apartment. Well I had a surprise for her too.
"Surprise." I said as Emma as she came into the kitchen.
"Daisy..." Emma started walking forward, but I cut her off.
"I know what you're going to say." I told her. "But we celebrate every holiday and every single one of my birthdays. Why shouldn't we celebrate yours?" I asked as she sat the bag on the table next to the cake.
"We celebrate the holidays because it's the human thing to do," She reminded me as she put her hands on the table and began slipping her feet out of her heels. "And we celebrate your birthday because you'd die if we didn't." Not untrue.
Okay, I think a little background is in order.
I was six years old and the only girl living in a house with four foster brothers and two foster parents when Emma moved in.
Before she moved in I didn't really have any female influences in my life, so- naturally- I thought my seventeen year old foster sister was the coolest thing on two legs. Emma hadn't exactly been a people person, so for the first couple of days she was quiet and ignored me despite the fact that we shared a room. After a while though, Emma realized how amazing I was and started talking back to me. Not long after that I was proudly telling every first grader in my class about my super cool new sister.
Things, however, got tricky when- after ten months of living together- Emma turned eighteen and our foster parents gave her until they got back from the movies to pack her things and leave. I have no idea where they expected to go, but they wanted her gone for a reason I couldn't understand. I- at age seventeen- know that it was because they were no longer receiving a monthly check for her.
Emma had began packing, but I refused to let her leave. At seven years old I had been a stubborn little thing- still am- but Emma was more so. She kicked me out of the bedroom and told me to leave her alone. I ran out to my hiding place in the garage and cried for a few minutes before Emma found me and announced that she was leaving, but not without me.
So with a little purple Care Bear backpack filled with most of my clothes and my hand in Emma's, we left and that was the end of it.
Well...not really, but I'm not going to tell you everything at once; I'd be an awful storyteller if I did.
Anyway, back to the story. Not the story I was just telling you the other stor- just read.
"I don't like my birthday." She continued once her feet were free. "The cake, the presents, the attention...all it does is remind me of what I didn't have as a kid."
"Would it make you feel better if I told you that we just continue our normal traditions of eating the cake while watching reruns of Friends and me not getting you a gift?" I asked.
"Thank you." She said. "That always was one of my favorite traditions. And now for the only other tradition I like." She picked up the bag and held it out of me.
"Is this my annual Emma's day gift?" I asked in mock surprise.
"That would be correct." She answered. I reached my hand inside the bag and pulled out a snow globe. It was always a snow globe.
Inside the snow globe showed Disney's version of Prince Charming carrying Snow white and it had the seven dwarfs around the red base where I held it.
"It's beautiful." I told her. I had a massive snow globe collection in my bedroom, most of them from the different places we've lived, but this was so far my favorite. "Snow White."
"The veteran princess." Emma supplied. "Even after all these years she's still keeping up with these new ones."
"It's time for you to blow out your candles." I said sitting down the snow globes. Emma was about to blow them out, but I stopped her. "Make a wish." I reminded her and she rolled her eyes before closing them and after a few seconds she blew them out. Not even a moment later the doorbell rang.
"Are you expecting someone?" I asked and she shook her head. "I'll get it." I told her before leaving the kitchen. When I got to the door I opened it, but no one was there.
"Down here." A voice said and I looked down to see a little boy around nine or so with brown hair and brown eyes with a backpack.
"Hello..." I started. "Are you lost?" I asked.
He shook his head. "Are you Emma Swan?" He asked and I raised an eyebrow. Why would a kid be looking for Emma?
"Who's asking?"
"My name's Henry." He told me. "I'm her son." Little-boy-who-just-rang-on-my-doorbell-like-he-doesn't-have-a-care-in-the-world say what?
"Emma!" I yelled back into the apartment not taking my eyes off of Henry Mills. "It's for you!"
"What is it?" She called back.
"It has a name." Henry broke it before walking underneath my arm and into the apartment.
"Why don't you come in?" I asked sarcastically before shutting the door and walking after Henry.
"Daisy?" Emma asked looking at the little boy who had just made it into the kitchen. "Who is this?"
"I should be asking you the same thing." I told her as I crossed my arms. "This is Henry." I informed her. "He says he's your son."
And that is what brought us to our current point. Emma had locked herself in the bathroom and was probably hyperventilating, while I shared a piece of cake with her supposed 'son'.
"So you're her son." I said looking at him as he sat on the island eating the cake I had given him.
"Yep." When did Emma have time to have a baby without my knowing? "Who are you?"
"I'm her...sister." I lied. Maybe it was when she got me after she got out of jail. She did look a little pudgy. And yes, Emma did go to jail, but that's a story for another time.
"So that'd make you my aunt?" He asked.
"Barely if you look at the technicalities." I answered turning around to the refrigerator and got a plastic bottle of milk. We didn't own many dishes because sometimes Emma and I liked to move without warning and didn't really need ten plates when it was just the two of us.
I opened the milk and slid it over to Henry. "How old are you Henry?" I asked curiously.
He opened his mouth to answer my question when Emma suddenly came into the kitchen. I'd have to ask him later.
"You know," Henry said looking to me and then Emma. "We should probably get going." Where?
"Going where?" Emma asked crossing her arms as she walked around to the side of the Island I stood by.
"I want you to come home with me." Henry said and my eyes bugged out.
"Road Trip?" I asked a bit excited and Emma squeezed her eyes shut as she shook her head.
"No!" She said. "No road trip." She looked to Henry. "I think this has all gone a little too far." She said walking to where we had a house phone on the wall near Henry.
"Then I'll tell them you kidnapped me." He said easily turning in his chair and I let out a laugh before turning to Emma.
"Rebuttal?"
"And they'll believe you because I'm your birth mother." Emma sighed.
"That was an awful rebuttal." I commented. "At least you know he's smart." Putting hand on her hip, Emma stared Henry down while he stared back wit a smug look on his face. When they were standing still, it was creepy how alike they looked.
"You're not going to do that." Emma declared and I raised an eyebrow. This was getting interesting...
Henry, however, was not about to back down so easily. "Try me." He dared. Emma nodded.
"You're pretty good." She acknowledged, wandering closer to where Henry sat. "But here's the thing – there's not a lot I'm great at in life-
"Cooking for one." Emma glared at me in warning before back to the kid.
"As I was saying..." She continued. "I do have one skill. Let's call it a superpower; I can tell when anyone is lying and you, kid, are."
Emma, now confident, went back towards the phone, but before she could put a hand on it, Henry stopped her. Wow she's good. "Wait…Please don't call the cops." Henry said sounding desperate. "Please, come home with me." He looked at her pleadingly and my heart melted.
"Where's home?" Emma sighed and Henry smiled. The little con artist...
"Storybrooke, Maine." You're screwing with me.
"Storybrooke?" Emma asked.
"Yeah, that's totally not fake." I said pulling the plate of cake towards me and shoving a forkful in my mouth.
"I swear it's real." Henry said and I was inclined to believe him. He was technically my nephew/brother.
"Alrighty, then." Emma said. "Let's get you back to...Storybrooke." Still not buying it.
So that's what piled us all in Emma's tiny yellow beetle. After she had changed and I got my sweater and my bag we got in the car and began the car to Storybrooke.
"I'm hungry." Henry said looking over at Emma. "Can we stop somewhere?"
"You ate like half her birthday cake you little monster." I said from where I sat in the backseat with my legs up. Since this would be Henry's first and last time riding in the awesometacular bug I helped Emma steal ten years ago, I figured I'd let him take the front. That and the fact that he beat me in three games of tic-tac-toe for it while we were waiting for Emma to change, but I would not be sitting in the back if we had just played rock-paper-scissors.
"This is not a road trip." Emma told him as I began digging around in my bag. "We're not stopping for snacks."
"Why not?" Henry asked.
"Quit complaining, kid." She suggested. "Remember – I could have put your butt on a bus. I still could."
"Aha!" I exclaimed triumphantly holding up a bag of skittles and threw them up front to Henry.
"Why do you have candy in your bag?" Emma asked looking at me in the rear view mirror and I raised an eyebrow.
"Do you not remember what happened in New Mexico?" I asked. "Because you were too stubborn to ask for directions we ended up stranded in the middle of the desert for two days living off of Mr. Goodbar's before someone found us and gave us a ride back to town." I leaned forward to look at Henry. "I had to pee in a bottle."
"Cool." I rolled my eyes and leaned against the door as I continued reading my book. Only a boy.
But I wasn't the only one with a book. Henry had a big leather bound one that said 'Once Upon A Time...' on the front.
"What's that?" Emma asked.
Henry answered without looking up from the book. "I'm not sure you're ready."
"I'm not ready for some fairy tales?" She asked making Henry look up.
"They're not fairy tales. They're true." He said sounding like he truly believed that. "Every story in this book actually happened."
Emma nodded not believing him for a second. "Of course they did."
"Use your superpower." Henry told her. "See if I'm lying."
Emma looked at him for a moment before turning back to the road. "Just because you believe something, doesn't make it true."
"That's exactly what makes it true." Can't argue with that logic. "You should know more than anyone."
"Why's that?" Emma asked sounding amused.
"Because you're in this book." Way to drop a bombshell on someone.
"Oh, kid." Emma said shaking her head. "You've got problems." Who do you think he got them from?
"Yep." He agreed. "And you're going to fix them."
Henry went back to looking at his book, I went back to reading mine and Emma went back to driving all in silence. I didn't know what Henry's deal was with that book, but I somehow knew that book was going to change everything.
...Or something cliche like that.
(O)(O)(O)
"Huh, so you weren't lying." I said as we passed the sign that read Welcome to Storybrooke. "Unless this was a ridiculously elaborate scheme to bring us to the middle of nowhere and feed us to your cannibal family."
But it wasn't.
We drove further into town and it was looking really Stars Hollow minus all the fairy lights. There were shops, a diner and in the middle of the town, a really big clock tower.
"Okay, kid." Emma said. "How about an address?" Why do I get the feeling it's not gonna be that easy?
"Forty-four Not Telling You street." Called it.
Emma immediately screeched to a stop in the middle of the road and got out, slamming her door behind her. "You really did it now." I said as Henry and I got out too.
"Look," Emma said sounding very exhausted. "It's been a long night and it's almost…" She looked up at the big clock tower. "8:15?" That didn't sound right.
"That's not right."
"That clock hasn't moved my whole life." Henry told her as I took out my phone to compare the time. "Time's frozen here."
"Excuse me?" I asked shoving my phone and hands into the pockets of my hoodie.
"The Evil Queen did it with her curse." Henry said. And we're back to the fairy tales. "She sent everyone from the Enchanted Forest here."
"Okay," Emma said trying to wrap her head around the nonsense floating around in Henry's head. "The Evil Queen sent a bunch of fairy tale characters here?"
"Yeah," Henry said as if it was obvious. "And now they're trapped."
"Frozen in time, stuck in Storybrooke, Maine." Emma finished. "That's what you're going with?"
"Well at least he has an imagination." I said just standing there.
"It's true!" Henry exclaimed.
I decided to ask the obvious question. "Then why doesn't everybody just leave?"
"They can't." He said. "If they try, bad things happen." Somebody obviously smacked him upside the head a few too many times.
Emma didn't seem to have an answer for that, but she didn't need one. Someone called out Henry's name and we all turned to see a guy with thin light brown hair, a trench coat, umbrella and a Dalmatian approaching us.
"Henry! What are you doing here?" He asked as if he had no clue that the kid had apparently snuck out of town. "Is everything alright?" He said glancing toward me and Emma.
"No, we're child smugglers and were just wondering if Henry wanted some of the candy in our truck." I said with a smile and Emma smacked my shoulder.
"I'm fine, Archie." Henry told him. Archie, okay why not?
"Who're your friends?" He asked looking towards us again.
"Just someone trying to give him a ride home." Emma said. Yeah, cause that doesn't scream pedophile.
"She's my mom, Archie." Henry informed the guy with a big smile as the dog started sniffing around my feet.
"Oh. I see." See what?
"You know where he lives?" Emma asked and Archie seemed like he was about to answer when the Dalmatian jumped on me.
"Oh!" I exclaimed quickly pulling my hands out of my pockets to support his weight.
"Pongo!" Archie exclaimed pulling gently on his leash, but the dog didn't budge. "I'm so sorry." He said taking Pongo by the collar and pulling him away from me.
"Never apologize for your dog jumping on me." I told him. "If I get taken down by a hundred pounds of spots and fur, then that's how I go." I accepted it.
"His address?" Emma asked again trying not to sound impatient.
"Oh right. Just, ah, right up on Mifflin street." He instructed. "The Mayor's house is the biggest one on the block."
"You're the Mayor's kid?" Emma asked looking down at Henry. This is going to be bad.
"Uh, maybe?" Not a lie.
"Hey, where were you today, Henry?" Archie asked suddenly. "Because you missed your session."
"Session?" I asked looking to Emma.
"Oh, I forgot to tell you. I went on a field trip." Henry lied easily.
Archie gave him a look as he bent down to Henry's height. "Henry. What did I tell you about lying? Giving into one's dark side never accomplishes anything." What?
"Oookay." Emma said sounding a little weirded out, not that I blamed her. "Well, we really should be getting him home."
"Yeah, sure." Archie said standing up. "Well, listen. Um. Have a good night and, uh, you be good, Henry." He said before walking away with his dog.
"So that's your shrink?" Emma asked.
"I'm not crazy." Henry denied immediately.
"Didn't say that." Emma reminded him with a shrug. "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." Henry told her.
"That he's a fairy tale character?" I asked leaning against the car.
"None of them do." He continued. "They don't remember who they are."
"Convenient." Emma muttered. "Alright, I'll play. Who's he supposed to be?"
"Jiminy Cricket."
Emma nodded. "Right, the lying thing. Thought your nose grew a little bit."
"I'm not Pinocchio!" Henry said shaking his head like she should've known that.
"Course not." I said shaking my head as Henry got back into the car. "Because that would be ridiculous."
(O)(O)(O)
Soon we arrived at a big white two story house with grass hedges forming a gate around it. We got out, with Henry protesting the whole way, and started up the walkway.
"Please don't take me back there." Henry pleaded.
"I have to." Emma told him. "I'm sure your parents are worried sick about you."
"I don't have parents." Henry said. Then who's house was this? "Just a mom and she's evil." Oh.
"Evil?" I asked as we stopped in the middle of the walkway. "That's a bit extreme, isn't it?"
Henry shook his head. "She is." He claimed. "She doesn't love me. She only pretends to." Oh, poor kid.
"Kid…" Emma started not entirely sure on what she was supposed to say. "I'm sure that's not true."
Suddenly the front door of the house opened and a woman with short black hair and tanned skin came running out and towards us.
"Henry!" She exclaimed when she saw him and pulled him into a hug he didn't return. "Henry…Are you okay?" She asked looking him over. "Where have you been? What happened?"
"I found my real mom!" Henry told the woman before running past her and the guy standing in the doorway and into the house.
The woman looked at Emma who didn't know exactly what to do.
"Y-you're Henry's birth mother?" She stuttered and Emma gave her a sheepish look.
"Hi…" Well if that wasn't the most awkward hi I've ever heard.
That was also the case for the guy because he decided to get away. "I'll just go…check on the lad." He said in an accent I couldn't quite place. "Make sure he's alright." Good idea.
"I'm gonna go too." I said before side stepping past the woman and going into the house with the guy. "Hi."
"Hello." He said back as we went up the large spiral staircase. "I'm Graham, the sheriff." Why couldn't small towns have normal police?
"Daisy." I told him.
"Henry's room is down here." He said leading me down the hall with four or so doors leading to different rooms. He stopped in front of the one of the doors before knocking. "Henry?" He asked.
"Go away." Henry's voice commanded, but he wasn't talking to me so I put my hand on the knob and tried to twist it, but it was locked.
"I got this." I told Sheriff Graham before pulling out the lock picks in my bag. Emma had taught me to pick locks when I was eight, something she know regretted whenever I got into her closet when she locked it during.
It took me only a moment to unlock the door before the lock clicked and the door opened slightly. I straightened up before shoving the picks in my bag.
"Henry?" I asked pushing the door open more. He looked up from where he sat on his bed.
His bedroom wasn't too shabby. Blue walls, books and toys all over the place and posters on his wall. I didn't see anything that screamed 'This kid is insane!', but it was still early.
"How'd you get in?" He asked confused.
"Magic." I told him pulling the lock picks out of my bag.
"Henry," Sheriff Graham asked stepping further into the room and looking down at the small kid. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine." He said.
"They didn't hurt you?" Sheriff Graham asked and I scoffed.
"I'm standing right here." I reminded him gesturing to myself.
"They didn't hurt me." Henry assured him.
"I'm gonna go talk to your mother now." Sheriff Graham said. "She was really worried about you, you know." Henry just shrugged and Graham sighed before leaving the room.
"He's right." I said making Henry looked up at me. "She sounded really worried. I can't always tell when someone's lying like Emma, but I do know when someone's telling the truth and your mom sounded like she was really worried."
"She was faking." Henry told me. "The Evil Queen doesn't care about anyone."
"I'm sure that's not true." I said sitting next to him on the bed. "Why would she pretend to love you? You're a pretty cool kid."
"You think so?" He asked and I nodded.
"Definitely." I told him. "And I'm know your mom thinks so too."
He looked like he wanted to say something, but a sharp knocking sounded on the door and we both looked to see his mother standing in the doorway.
"Your mother's leaving." She said and I stood up.
"Mother?" Henry asked and I mentally cringed as I looked at him. I forgot I told him that Emma was my sister to spare his feelings. He was probably thinking the worst now.
"Uh, thanks." I said wanting Henry to stop making the hurt look that was on his face. "Bye Henry." I said before rushing out of the room. I quickly walked down the stairs and saw Emma standing in the middle of the walkway staring up at the house.
"What're you doing?" I asked only to see she was staring up at Henry's bedroom window. "Emma." I said grabbing her arm.
She looked over at me before sparing one lat glance toward the little boys window. "Lets go." She said before continuing down the walkway.
"Do you think we did the right thing?" I asked as we were driving out of town. "You know, leaving him there?"
"It's not like we had another choice." Emma said. "She's his mother."
"Yeah, but did you heard him?" I asked. "He sounded miserable."
"I asked for a closed adoption and that's what I got." Emma told me. "I can't change my mind just because he found me."
"That's reminds me," I said after a few moments of silence. "When did you have a baby? I don't remember you being pregnant."
She didn't say anything and at first I thought she wasn't going to answer. "It was when you went back to foster care." She said suddenly.
"What?"
"After the police caught me with the watches and you got sent back to foster care." She continued. "I went to jail for a year and while I was in there I found out I was pregnant."
"You gave birth to Henry in jail?" I asked and she nodded. "Why didn't you keep him?"
"Because I'm not a mother Daisy." She said. "I couldn't raise a baby, I didn't have a place to live, no money..." She looked at me. "And I still had to take care of you once I got out. I couldn't raise you and a baby."
"So you chose me over Henry." I stated quietly and she sighed.
"I wanted to give you both your best chance." She said. "His was with someone who could care for him and yours was with me."
I didn't say anything and she just looked at me for a moment before I turned back to the road. "Emma watch out!" I yelled seeing the gray and white wolf standing in the middle of the road. Emma looked to the road and swerved when she saw it. I screamed just before we hit the sign welcoming us to Storybrooke and then nothing but darkness.
(O)(O)(O)
"Daisy," A voice said. "Daisy, can you hear me?"
It was kind of hard, but I did manage to open my eyes and was immediately blinded by a very bright light.
"Oh God, I'm dead." I groaned before sighing and re-closing my eyes. "Well at least I made it to heaven."
"You're not dead," The voice said. "Open your eyes." I did as commanded and saw Emma's face as my eyes began to get used to the light.
"Emma," I said before I noticed a sharp pain thudding through my skull. "Ow." I lifted up my right hand to touch my head, but got distracted by the blue cast covering my hand and forearm. "Oh, that's a cast."
Emma nodded. "And that's why we wear our seat belts." I narrowed my eyebrows at her.
"You wearing your seat belt once in the last nine years does not give you the right to lecture me." I informed her with a half-assed glare.
"Excuse me," A voice said from behind Emma. She turned around and moved just enough so that I could see that it was Henry's adoptive mother standing near the Sheriff dude. "Now that you two have caught up can we get back to finding my son?"
"Who shoved a pine cone up your as-" I started, but Emma put her hand over my mouth.
Turns out that our little Henry was missing and Emma had volunteered herself to find him after she had been released from jail for driving drunk. I tried to tell the Sheriff that there had been a wolf standing in the middle of the road, but he just wouldn't believe me or Emma who confirmed it.
Some guy named Dr. Whale gave Emma some pain pills that she was supposed to give me if the pain in my head became too much. After Emma signed the release forms we all headed back to the mayors house so Emma could do what she did so well.
(O)(O)(O)
"Smart kid," Emma said once we got back to the mayors house. We were all in his room, I was sitting in the chair in front of his computer while Emma leaned over me to look over my shoulder. "Cleared his inbox."
"Well now how are we supposed to find him?" Mayor Who-Had-Yet-To-Tell-Me-Her-Name said.
I turned to look back at her. "Thankfully for you I'm smart too." I said digging into my bag until I pulled out a flash drive and plugged it into the hard drive. "Since Emma's not to great with computers, I do that part of her job. A little hard disk recovery utility I like to use…"
"I'm a bit more old fashioned in my techniques." Sheriff Graham said as I worked my magic. "Pounding the pavement, knocking on doors, that sort of thing."
"You're on salary." Emma reminded him "I get paid for delivery. Pounding the pavement is not a luxury that I get."
"Huh." I said when his history was restored. "He's got a receipt for a website." I looked at the bill. $150.92. "It's expensive. He has a credit card?"
"He's ten." Mayor Stick-Up-Her-Ass said as if that answered the question.
"Well, he used one." I told her. "Let's pull up a transaction record." A few clicks and I got it. "Mary Margaret Blanchard…Who the hell names their kid Mary Margaret Blanchard?"
"Who's Mary Margaret Blanchard?" Emma asked and I turned around to see her looking at Henry's mother.
"Henry's teacher." She said before turning and walking out of the room. I looked at Emma before we all followed her out of the bedroom.
(O)(O)(O)
It didn't take us long to get to the school and no one spoke while we followed a very annoyed mayor, who I finally found out was named Regina, through the school.
She led us down a hallway just as the bell rang and a bunch of kids came running out of classrooms, she pushed past them all as we entered a classroom where a woman, who I assumed was Mary Margaret Blanchard was.
She was about Emma's height with short black hair that was in a pixie cut. She had a very...plump face although the rest of her body was much like Emma's, not that you could tell from her preachers daughter clothing.
"Miss Mills." She said seeing us. "What are you doing here?"
Miss Mills was in no mood for pleasantries. "Where's my son?" She demanded, but the woman seemed to have no idea what she was talking about.
"Henry?" She asked. "I assumed he was home sick with you."
"You think I'd be here if he was?" Regina sneered. "Did you give him your credit card so he can find her?"
Mary Margaret just shook her head in confusion as she turned her head towards Emma. "I'm sorry, who are you?"
"I'm his…" Emma started, but didn't seem to know what to say. "I'm his…"
"The woman who gave him up for adoption." Regina cut in. I'll take Bitchy for three hundred Alex.
"And you are?" She asked looking to me.
"I'm her pimp." I said, but only got a 'Knock it off' glare from Emma. "Henry would've appreciated that."
"You don't know anything about this do you?" Emma asked as the black haired woman went over to her purse and Mary Margaret shook her head.
"No, unfortunately not." She said pulling out her wallet and looking through it. "Clever boy…" She said shaking her head. "I should never have given him that book."
"What in the hell is this book I keep hearing about?" Regina asked.
"Just some old stories I gave him." Mary Margaret assured her. "As you well know, Henry is a special boy. So smart, so creative, and as you might be aware, lonely. He needed it."
"What he needs is a dose of reality." Regina snapped.
"What you need is some help pulling that stick out of your a-" But yet again a hand was slapped over my mouth. Regina glared at me before turning around, knocking over a pile of books in the process. "Bitch." I said clearly enough through Emma's hand.
"Have a nice trip back to Boston." She sneered before leaving the room.
"Sorry to bother you." Emma apologized pulling her hand off of my face.
"No it's… It's okay." Mary Margret assured her. "I hear this is partially my fault."
"How's the book supposed to help?" I wondered out loud and she smiled at me.
"What do you think stories are for?" She asked. "These stories are classics. There's a reason we all know them. They're a way for us to deal with our world. A world that doesn't always make sense. See, Henry hasn't had the easiest life."
"Yeah, she's kind of a hardass.." I noticed and Emma didn't even bother reprimanding me that time because we both knew she was a grade A bitch.
"No, it's more than her." Mary Margaret said. "He's like any adopted child. He wrestles with that most basic question they all inevitably face 'Why would anyone give me away?'" Emma looked down and I bit my lip.
She was right. I had never known my mother, didn't even remember a life before foster care and I had wondered time and time again why she gave me up.
I was only three when a couple of nuns found me sleeping in the confessional of the church they belonged to. I stayed when them for only three months before Social Services took me away and plopped me into a foster home where the dad spent all the money the state gave him on beer and the wife sold drugs out of her basement. It wasn't until my foster dad had burned me with one of his cigarettes that I wondered why my parents left me, why they would want this kind of life for me.
Mary Margaret seemed to realized she had kinda hit a nerve. "I am so sorry." She said. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean in any way to judge you."
"It's okay." Emma assured her.
"Look, I gave the book to him because I wanted Henry to have the most important thing anyone can have." She said. "Hope. Believing in even the possibility of a happy ending is a very powerful thing."
"No offense, but you sound like an after school special." I told her, but I was ignored.
"You know where he is, don't you?" Emma asked and Mary Margaret bit her lip.
"You might want to check his castle." She suggested.
"The kid has a castle?" I asked in disbelief. "Technically I am his sister, therefore I am entitled to half of that."
"It's not that kind of castle." Mary Margaret assured me.
(O)(O)(O)
Emma and I got in the bug and she drove us to Henry's castle which was part of a play set at a playground near the shore of the beach.
She parked and turned off the car before turning to me. "Let's go."
"Actually," I started when she went to open her door. "I think you should go alone. You're his mother and he needs you right now."
"Daisy..." She started, but I shook my head.
"It's okay." I told her. "It really is. He needs to know you and he needs to know that you didn't just abandon him. He also needs to know why you gave him up for adoption and then turned around and adopted me. He needs to know that you just wanted the best for him." I said. "And you need to have that talk one on one with him."
"You sure?" She asked and I nodded before grabbing Henry's book from the backseat where I had put it and handed it to Emma.
(O)(Emma)(O)
"You left this in my car." Emma said once she had gotten onto the wooden castle where Henry sat.
She handed him the book before sitting down and followed his gaze to where the clock tower sat in the middle of the town.
"Still hasn't moved, huh?" She asked trying to make conversation.
"I was hoping that when I brought you back, things would change here." Henry said still staring and Emma sighed knowing what he was talking about. "That the final battle would begin."
"I'm not fighting any battles, kid." Emma tried to tell him, but he just turned his body to look at Emma.
"Yes, you are." He told her. "Because it's your destiny. You're going to bring back the happy endings."
"Can you cut it with the book crap?" She snapped wishing he would just stop, but he surprised her by just smiling.
"You don't have to be hostile." He said and she turned to face him. "I know you like me- I can tell. You're just pushing me away because I make you feel guilty." She made to say something, but he stopped her. "It's okay. I know why you gave me away. You wanted to give me my best chance."
"How do you know that?" Emma asked.
"Because it's the same reason Snow White gave you away." He told her and she sighed. And they were back to the fairy tales.
"Listen to me, kid." She started. "I'm not in any book. I'm a real person. And I'm no savior. You were right about one thing, though. I wanted you to have your best chance. But it's not with me." She said before she made a move to get up. "Come on, let's go." She said. "Daisy's waiting in the car."
"Please don't take me back there!" He pleaded stopping her in her movements. "Just stay with me for one week. That's all I ask. One week, and you'll see I'm not crazy."
"I have to get you back to your mom." She told him.
"You don't know what it's like with her." He said. "My life sucks!"
"Oh, you want to know what sucking is?" Emma asked suddenly angry and sad at the same time. "Being left abandoned on the side of a freeway. My parents didn't even bother to drop me off at a hospital!" She told him. "I ended up in the foster system and I had a family until I was three, but then they had their own so then they sent me back."
She took a breath and tried to get a hold on her emotions. "Look, your mom is trying her best." She said having know idea why she was defending Regina of all people. "I know it's hard and I know sometimes you think she doesn't love you, but at least she wants you."
"Your parents didn't leave you on the side of a freeway." Henry said after a moment. "That's just where you came through."
"What?" She asked.
"The wardrobe." He explained. "When you went through the wardrobe you appeared in the street. Your parents were trying to save you from the curse."
"Sure they were." Emma said standing up. "Come on, Henry." But the ten year old didn't move. "Henry?"
"Why didn't you keep me?" He asked. "You adopted Daisy, but why didn't you keep me too? We could've been a family." Emma sighed as she sat back down.
"Daisy...she hasn't had an easy life." She told him. "Her parents abandoned her, she had a lot of crappy foster parents...just like me. I guess, when I look at her I see myself and I wonder...I wonder what kind of life I could've had if someone had taken care of me. I didn't choose her over you, if that's what you're thinking." Emma assured him. "Daisy's best chance was with me. Yours wasn't."
(O)(Daisy)(O)
I had made the smart decision of waiting in the car when Emma walked with Henry up to his house. When Regina answered the door she and Emma looked like they were arguing and the entire time I was just wondering why Henry didn't have his own set of keys to the house.
After Emma and Regina got done with their little love fest Emma drove us to a little Inn called Granny's Bed and Breakfast so we could stay in town. Apparently she had told Henry she would stay for week, but she assured me that after that we would be leaving and going back to Boston to continue our lives.
When we walked into the B&B, the first thing we heard were the sounds of two people, women, arguing.
"You're out all night, and now you're going out again!" The first voice yelled.
"I should have moved to Boston!" The second voice yelled as a girl with brown and red hair, who couldn't have been much older than me, stormed out of the back room followed by an old woman with whitish gray hair.
"I'm sorry that my heart attack interfered with your plans to sleep your way down the eastern seaboard!" The old woman yelled back.
"That's gonna be us in ten years when you're all old and wrinkly." I said to Emma who ignored me.
"Excuse me?" She asked catching the woman's attention. "We'd like a room."
"Really?" The old woman, who I was going to go out on a limb and say was Granny, asked moving behind the desk. "Would you like a forest view or a square view? Normally, there's an upgrade fee for the square but, as friends do, I'll wave it."
"Square is fine." Emma told her.
"Now," Granny said picking up her pen. "What's the name?"
"Swan." Emma told her. "Emma Swan."
"Emma." A voice said and I whirled around to see an older man who was probably in his forties standing near the door. When the hell did he come in."What a lovely name."
"Thanks." Emma said obviously weirded out by the guy who just appeared out of nowhere.
Granny didn't seem to like him either because she held out a roll of bills towards the guy. "It's all here." She said as he took them and she retracted her hand.
"Yes, yes," He said. "Of course it is, dear. Thank you." He looked to Emma. "You enjoy your stay...Emma." That's when he finally noticed me. "And you are?"
"I'm D-" I started only to get cut off by Emma.
"My daughter." Emma said pulling me to her side protectively as if the old timer was going to hurt me. He just smiled before turning around and leaving.
"Why'd you go all mama bear on him?" I asked, but got no answer.
"Who's that?" Emma asked looking at the door.
"Mr. Gold." The younger woman said. "He owns this place."
"The inn?" I asked and she shook her head.
"No, the town." Granny corrected me before turning to Emma. "So, how long will you be with us?"
"A week." She said. "Just a week."
"Great." Granny said with a smile. I was just waiting for Tweety and Sylvester to come out.
She turned around and got a key from one of the many that hung on the wall before handing it to Emma. "Welcome to Storybrooke."
(O)(O)(O)
"What did you do?" Rumpelstiltskin demanded as soon as he barged into the mayors office. Putting down the bottle of bourbon, Regina turned around to face the angry man with a smirk.
"I'm sure I have no idea what you're talking about." She responded as she went over to her desk.
"Don't play mind games with me, Regina." He growled, letting the door shut as he followed her. "I have spent twenty-eight years looking around this town for my daughter and somehow she just rides past the town limits of Storybrooke with your stepdaughters child. Explain."
"I have no idea what you are referring to." Regina said in the condescending tone of hers. Raising the glass to her lips, Regina didn't even flinch when Rumpelstiltskin smacked it out of her hand and let it crash down to the floor.
"Why wasn't she here- why wasn't she with me when you cast your curse?!" He all but yelled. Regina smirked as she leaned in closer. Their noses almost touched, but neither of them moved.
"All magic comes with a price." She reminded him. "And it looks like we're both paying it."
(O)(O)(O)
"Alright, ten minutes and then I want you in bed." Emma said as went inside of the bathroom and Daisy resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Going over to the window, she looked out of it, practically seeing the entire town. The large clock tower in the middle of the town was still stuck on eight-fifteen, but- to be fair- it was correct at the moment.
Thinking about the clock tower made Daisy think of Henry; when she first listened to him and this claim that everyone in town was a fairy tale character, she had dismissed it as the vivid and wild imagination of a ten year old boy, but she began to wonder...what if Henry was telling the truth?
Suddenly, the reflection in the glass of the window was no longer Daisy- well, it was, just a different Daisy; her hair was down instead of in the ponytail she had it in and on her head sat a small golden circlet of flowers.
Daisy let at a gasp at the image, but it was already gone. "That was weird."
"What was weird?" Daisy turned around to see Emma standing in the doorway of the bathroom brushing her teeth. Daisy looked at the window before turning back to Emma.
"Nothing." She dismissed. "I'm just tired." With one last look at the window, Daisy moved to get settled for bed. Only a moment later as the clock on the bedside table switched to eight-sixteen did the hand on the clock tower finally move.