Discarding Baggage

Blissfully content. That was the only way Henry Mills could describe how he felt. It had been a long time since he could ever say he had awoken feeling so calm. After his wife and daughter had died sleep had been a rare occurrence, and now with all this business with Lucy, Jacinda and Hyperion Heights, he had been so confused with what he was doing with his life that he'd often kept himself awake with his own thoughts.

With his eyes still closed, he tried to piece together his night before; he couldn't remember exactly how he had gotten home. He had been afraid to commit to a simple thing as going trick or treating with Jacinda, so he had run away back to Roni's where he'd found his unlikely ally, Ivy.

Henry scrunched his eyes tighter and concentrated hard as he tried to figure out what had happened after they had taken their first shot. After a few minutes of thought, the fog began to clear.

Were they on round three or round four of the shots Roni kept bringing them? Neither of them were keeping count. The Halloween parties had come and gone, there were just a few stragglers propping up the bar: one bearded skeleton and a Dracula who seemed to have acquired a witch's hat.

Henry knew he'd had more than he should have had but once he started cowering from his problems he couldn't stop, and alcohol seemed a good solution. Across the table from him sat his newest drinking buddy in this peculiar part of town he'd begun to frequent more and more. Described as Cinderella's evil stepsister by Lucy, he never thought he would have anything in common with Ivy. He assumed she was just her mother's lapdog, but after their adventure scouring the streets for the little girl, he realised there was a lot more to her than meets the eye.

"So, Henry, why are you even here?" she asked, her words slurring a little. She rested her chin on the back of her hand and looked up at him with her big brown eyes. She wasn't intentionally flirting with him, at least, she didn't think she was, but after the amount of alcohol she had drank, she was no longer able to control her actions.

He scoffed, trying to disguise the fact that he didn't actually have a truthful answer to her question. "I'm drinking with you, aren't I?"

Ivy rolled her eyes and leant forward, irritated by his lack of a straight answer, and it didn't go unnoticed by the bar owner. Roni watched the scene unfold carefully, and she brushed away a stray hair from her blonde wig that had fallen in front of her face. When she had told Henry he should move on, she had assumed it was with Jacinda and Lucy, not the daughter of the woman they were trying to bring down. But it wasn't her place to interfere, it never was when she watched the stories play out in her establishment; Henry was a grown man and his decisions were his own.

The only thing she could do was call time when the clock chimed 2am on this Halloween night, even bartenders needed to sleep. Roni collected the last few empty glasses and quietly ushered the skeleton and the witch's hat wearing vampire out of the door before looking over to the couple still huddled over the table, laughing together.

"Okay I hate to kick you guys out but I gotta get out of this wig." Her tone was matter-of-fact as she leant over the table. The interruption soon silenced all conversation and both Henry and Ivy looked up at her, and she could have sworn she saw the young man blush a little. Perhaps it was just the alcohol.

"Oh yeah, sorry Roni," he apologised quickly, getting up from the table, realising through his drunken haze that they had long outstayed their welcome. "Thanks for everything," he added genuinely, he vaguely remembered the heartfelt conversation they had shared earlier that evening.

"Get home safe, Henry," she told him, her words being more of a warning to the dangers of his female companion than an act of concern. She barely nodded to Ivy as she followed after him. He may have decided to befriend the enemy, but she wasn't that stupid.

The chill of the autumn air hit them as they left the comfort of the bar. There were a few masked faces passing by to remind them that it was still Halloween. Henry noticed Ivy shiver in just her short-sleeved leather jacket and mini skirt as they stood in silence for a few moments, with just the light from Roni's neon sign illuminating their features.

"Oh, here you go!" Chivalrously, he shrugged his burgundy coat off and placed it over her shoulders, rubbing them a little in an attempt to warm her up.

Ivy raised her eyebrows at the gesture, but she wouldn't admit that she was grateful or that it was one of the nicest things anyone had ever done for her. "Well look at you, Prince Charming!"

Henry shook his head and sighed, "I'm no prince, just a down on his luck author who followed a little girl to a neighbourhood in a desperate attempt to give my life a purpose again."

Ivy took a step towards him and held his gaze for just a few seconds, but it felt like hours were going by. "I guess we now know the real reason you're here, author."

"It's stupid-"

"No more stupid than a girl in her twenties still working and living with her mother, a mother who she's still terrified to go back and face, even after all this Dutch courage..." she told him with a slight shrug. A little embarrassed by admittance of emotion, she took a step away from him and turned away slightly but he wouldn't let her hide. "I guess one night won't get rid of that baggage."

Henry didn't know what possessed him to take her by the hand, maybe it was the Dutch courage that Ivy spoke of. All his previous reservations had gone, he was letting the alcohol lead him, but there was some of his heart in it too. Ivy understood him in a way no-one else really did. Sure, Jacinda had it hard, and he had come to care for her and Lucy, but their relationship was based on only spending time together during some crisis or another. He couldn't tell anyone else, but they just reminded him too much of his wife and daughter that he had lost, and it both felt great and hurt like hell when he spent time with them. Ivy had listened to him for hours, pouring out all his problems and he listened to hers, that sort of raw conversation induced by alcohol connects people, and he liked that.

"Maybe not all at once, but I think I've discarded a few bags tonight." Ivy smiled at his metaphor and gave a small nod, she agreed that talking with this practical stranger did make her feel better. For years, she had harboured anger towards the way her mother treated her and yet she'd had no-one to share it with, until one Halloween night she stumbles upon this self-published author who understands her struggles.

You don't have to face her just yet," he told her finally, running his thumb over the back of her hand affectionately.

Ivy looked up at him from underneath her lashes, even in her heels she was a little shorter than him. "No?"

"No."

Before he knew it, he was kissing her, right there in front of Roni's in the middle of the street, but for once he just didn't care. Her lips were soft on his and it wasn't long before she was kissing him back, looping her arms around her neck, weaving her fingers through his thick, brown hair. It felt as if she was massaging his scalp and it felt good. He tightened his grip around her waist and deepened the kiss, it was the first physical contact he'd had with anyone since his wife and somewhere deep down in his heart he felt guilty, but like Roni said, he needed to move on. The drink had made him forget his fears and now he was just going to live in the moment.

The memories flashed back to him so suddenly, his eyes flew open as he remembered the events following that almost magical kiss outside Roni's. It felt as though his brain was hammering against his skull, but he ignored it for the time being, he sat up and immediately looked to the other side of the bed.

It was empty.

Disappointment began to seep into his heart, as guilty as he felt for his kiss with Ivy, part of him wished it had gone further. He was sure that she had come back to his apartment so he had just assumed that they had taken things further as part of their drunken lustfulness. This was evidently not the case. He sunk back into the pillows and closed his eyes while his hangover continued to rage on.

"Over here, author."

Henry shot up at the sound of the female voice in the room, he had been so preoccupied with checking his bed, he hadn't thought about the rest of his apartment. Sure enough, sitting on his couch, putting her heels on, in the same clothes from the night before, was Ivy.

His face melted into a lopsided grin and he ran his hand over his head. He tried to think up something clever and creative to say, he was a writer after all, but all he could manage was, "hey."

"Hey," she repeated with a small smile before she stopped herself and regained control of her emotions. Her usual 'couldn't care less' face returned, and she simply stared at him before standing up and swinging her bag over her shoulder. "Thanks for letting me stay last night but let's be clear, nothing happened. You know what, let's just never talk about this again, okay? That kiss was a mistake, we're from two worlds that shouldn't collide. You should go back to Jacinda and I need to grovel to my mother."

Henry saw the sadness in her eyes as she spoke even if she wouldn't let her emotions be put on display. He so desperately wanted to go to her and hold her, just like he had done the night before but now he didn't have alcohol to remove his inhibitions. He was alone, scared and sober. He wasn't ready for a battle of the heart just yet, so instead of being the man he wanted to be, he sat in silence while he watched her turn to walk out of his door.

"Goodbye Henry."

And just like that, Henry Mills let the woman who had helped to heal his heart just leave without a word.