Disclaimer: Once Upon A Time and all of its characters belong to Disney, the writers and creators of the show. I am only playing with them

Notes: This story is plays around with what was written, but takes a left turn into AU when I felt it was necessary. It started out as a simple story about a mother and her child, but since I am an incurable romantic, there is a touch of Rumpel and Belle in the last two chapters. I couldn't help myself. This is my first attempt in this wonderful fandom – Enjoy!

Note 2: Chapter 1 of 4

Lies, Truths, and Fairytales

By

Lattelady

Ch. 1 – Lies

"There were lies we told to save ourselves, and then there were lies we told to rescue others. What counted more, the mistruth, or the greater good?" – Jodi Picoulti, Handle with Care

Middle of Season I

Emma blinked, unsure if she had heard Henry correctly. Had he really asked her about his dad? Her mind whirled with how to respond; at the same time she mentally kicked herself for not being prepared for the question. Honesty was always best, but how could she tell him what really happened? The kid had to have one parent he was proud of and right now he had a…an inventive idea that his adoptive mom was a powerful Evil Queen, straight out of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Henry was plotting her magical downfall. Nope, under the circumstances, that didn't exactly make Regina mother of the year.

The sheriff knew that she wasn't any better. Family, loving and belonging were a foreign concept, a long lost dream. She was a foster child who had clawed her way through the system, getting tougher and harder each year of her life. Henry had come looking for her, but it was because he though she was the 'Savior' who would break a Curse that had transported all the residence of The Enchanted Forest to Storybrooke, Maine and taken away their happy endings. Just the though of what he believed her to be made her stomach clench and filled her with self-doubt.

He didn't see Emma Swan, as she really was, tough, tenacious, and about as lovable as a grizzly bear. She was a rolling stone who gathered no moss. When he finally pulled his head out of his fairytale book and saw the truth, she was sure he wouldn't want her anymore than anyone else had. Then he would be gone too.

That only left Neal Cassidy, but if she told Henry the truth, the boy would have no one to look up to. She couldn't do that to him. She had loved him enough to give him up for adoption ten years ago; she could do this much for him now. She could leave him with the small gift of a lie, a father who was special, since it seemed both of his mothers were lacking.

It was a simple matter of exchanging Neal's face for the blurry one that had been her imagined father's, when she'd still bothered to try and put a face to her parents. A bit more juggling and the man didn't go back into a burning car to try and save his wife, after being sure his baby daughter was safely by the roadside, but Fireman Cassidy who ran into a burning building to get an unconscious child. Unfortunately, he wasn't fast enough. He died from smoke inhalation, after giving his breathing gear to the youngster he rescued.

"Emma, you don't have to tell me if it makes you sad." Henry gently patted her arm.

"No…no, kid, that's all right." She cleared her throat and fought down the niggling feeling that telling this lie was going to come back to haunt her. "He was a hero, your father. A fireman who went into a burning building to save a child." Emma told herself it was necessary to make the man a hero in order to give her son something to believe in, other than a storybook. "He got the little boy out, but there was too much smoke and your dad didn't make it."

"A hero, wow." Henry grinned and his eyes lit up with joy. He'd always wondered about his parents. The second he met Emma he could tell that she was everything that Snow White and Prince Charming's child should be and he was thrilled she was his mom. He knew that she didn't believe yet, not in the real Enchanted Forest or herself, but she was getting there.

"You've got his eyes." The words slipped out before she could stop them.

"I'm glad." He knew he had Emma's stubbornness, and her smile. It was nice to know that part of his dad lived on in him.

"I think this conversation is something we should keep under Operation Cobra." She added.

"Cool, Operation Cobra it is." He was aware that his mom, the Evil Queen one, liked to think his eyes looked like hers. He didn't want to hurt her. He only wanted to break her Curse and be allowed to spend time with Emma, too. "Will you tell me more about my dad?"

"Someday, when you are older, I will tell you all about him, I promise." Just saying it made her feel better. When Henry grew out of his fairytale phase, she would tell him everything, including the fact that she hadn't told the truth to a ten year-old child. Hadn't told that child that his dad had been a criminal who let his mom take the rap for his crimes, causing her to give birth in a prison infirmary.

She knew that Regina had been sure to tell him where he was born in an effort to blacken Emma's name. It wasn't necessary for him to know that Neal had been involved, at least not until he was older.

TBC