Spoilers if you haven't seen the series finale. Some fill-in-the-blank scenes for Emma and Wish Henry because I needed to see this. This is barely revised and unbetaed so expect mistakes. I may come back and fix this later, I mostly just wanted to share this while the feelings from the finale were fresh in my mind.

It takes her by surprise. One minute she's marching up the stairs of their home behind Henry, each dragging a suitcase full of messy clothes and mementos from their post-graduation trip, and the next minute she's alone on the landing and her son has just disappeared before her very eyes.

"Henry!" She screams, panic flooding her veins. Her boy is just gone.

The bag drops. Killian appears at the bottom of the stairs, having abandoned the lunch he was preparing for his returned travelers. "What's wrong?"

But she can't speak. Can't even move.

And then the ground shakes. The air changes. In the distance, she can hear Leroy shouting, but before either of them can move, a billow of purple smoke pours through the open windows and seeps under the doors. She's seen this so many times and yet her heart sinks with dread at the realization that another curse has been savior is being called back into action. She has to save Henry, save the town. Again.

"We need to go. We need to see what's happened. Find. Henry." She gets the words out. Killian only nods and moves to the back door. She's knows he's going for the shed, where their long-retired weapons reside. It had been too much to hope that maybe they could've stayed there, untouched for the rest of their lives, but the fact that they both wordlessly agreed to hang on to them perhaps speaks for itself on what they both expected to happen eventually. They are getting sucked right back into another battle. Another curse. Another rescue mission.

When the smoke clears and Regina finds herself in front of the clocktower, her heart swells with hope. "Did it work?"

She turns and they're all there. Henry, Ella, and Lucy. Snow and Charming. Alice, Robin and Hook. Her sister. Her son from another realm. There's all with her.

The smoke recedes further and that's when the real truth of it all hits them. There are castles and spires in the distance that weren't there before. She really did it. She pulled every realm into one.

"Regina!"

Emma and Hook - the first Hook - oh she can already see how this is going to be confusing - the two of them are racing towards her and then suddenly Emma stops short and Hook almost collides with her.

"Henry." Emma murmurs.

Oh. Yes. Two Henrys. But she isn't looking at her grown son, Regina notices. No, she's focused on the one that's still in his kingly garb. The one that's staring right back at Emma with such yearning in his eyes.

"Mom?" The younger Henry croaks and despite how the last few years have hardened him, he breaks at the sight of the mother he knew. The one that was ripped away from him, however complex the circumstances may have been. Tears course down his face as his feet carry him forward.

Regina swallows past a sudden lump in her throat. She should explain to Emma, but the words get stuck and she plays the part of an outside observer to what happens next.

It's her son. Emma recognizes him immediately. That look in his eyes, it's so different from her… well, for lack of a better word, from her first Henry. Real doesn't seem like the right word because this boy in front of her is as real as she is.

"Oh, Henry." Emma cries out and she closes the distance between them, gathering her son close. "I'm so sorry I left you. I've thought about you so much since that day."

She's flooded with memories she's tried to shut out. They weren't her true life, but the wish still gave them to her. A whole life in another kingdom with her parents and another Neal and this boy.

This boy. She remembers their whole story so vividly, even if she wasn't herself in it. That version of Emma was spineless and immature. Sheltered was probably putting it mildly. But Henry did light up that whole world for her.

The same Henry that was clinging to her now, his face buried in her neck where she can feel tears against her skin.

It's haunted her. She convinced herself it all wasn't real. That leaving that world meant it had collapsed without her presence to sustain it. How foolish.

She hugs Henry tighter. "I'm so sorry. I didn't know."

He's just as tall as her Henry. Well, as tall as the one she was just following up the stairs a moment ago. That means he's grown since she saw him last. That means he's lived since she saw him last.

"I would've come sooner if I'd known." She whispers, feeling a familiar heartache cracking her chest wide open. She failed him. Her son.

He's lived without her, without grandparents, in another world. All alone. A sob slips out from her, acknowledging the weight of his grief. She was alone for 28 years. She knows she can't take that pain back from him. Some part of him will always carry that now.

Henry eases back from her at the sound of her cries. "It's ok, Mom. I just never thought I'd see you again."

Fresh tears spill down her cheeks, a response to the mingling of grace and grief that overwhelm her. He isn't mad at her, but her heart still aches for him. She can't help it - she is his mother and any hurt he feels, she feels it, too. He never thought he'd see her again. Just the thought of that is enough to break her heart.

"Emma?" Killian is the one to finally break through their moment. She completely forgot there was a curse cast several minutes ago and one version of Henry completely disappeared. Emma swallows roughly as her gaze settles on Regina. She doesn't know how to say it, but a part of her wonders if something switched this Henry for the other one and as glad as she is to have Henry from the wish realm here with her, they need to get this world's Henry back right away.

"Regina, what the hell just happened? After we left you at your house, Henry and I were heading upstairs to unpack and he just vanished and now there's a new curse and -" She doesn't know how to finish the sentence. And anyway, Regina is looking at her like she just grew a second head.

"Emma, it's not a curse." Regina says slowly, the hint of a smile at her lips. "It's… well I think we actually figured out how to cast something entirely different. A blessing."

Emma's gaze sweeps over the crowd that surrounds Regina. Her parents have been suspiciously quiet and there are several other faces she doesn't recognize, but one she knows very well.

"What. The. Hell."

"Oh," Regina glances at the other Hook. "He's also from the wish realm."

"No he's not, I've seen that version of Killian." Emma insists. "He was old and he had a beer belly. Kind of hard to forget."

That only makes the other Hook grin, even if he looks a bit confused at her confusion.

"The time traveling." Someone says softly. "We came back before she traveled to the other realm to save me. She never met him for the second time after he became younger."

Emma's gaze follows the voice and settles on a face she hadn't studied closely enough before. He gives her a soft smile that makes her heart flutter. The way it always has when her son smiled at her.

"Hi, Mom."

"You can't be Henry." The words slip out before she can stop them. "I just mean… Kid, you're so grown up."

"It's a long story, but I can explain everything." The older Henry assures her. He glances at a young woman and then a little girl beside him.

"Maybe we should take this to Granny's." Snow suggests. "There's a lot of this story I haven't heard yet, either, and I've been dying to know."

"Yes, and then," Regina's gaze sweeps the surrounding kingdoms that she's stitched together. "Then, there's a lot of people we need to talk to."

"How are you holding up, love?"

Killian's arms slip around her from behind and Emma melts back into him with a sigh. "I have another son."

Killian huffs softly at this. "I'll admit, it's not what I expected from today. I thought I'd spend the afternoon hearing stories from my wife and stepson about their trip. Instead, I heard quite a different tale from your boy and my head's still spinning."

Oh god, their trip. It seems like another lifetime ago, but it was only just this morning that they returned from it.

"I don't even know what to make of today." Emma laughs, turning in Killian's arms so she can rest her head against his chest. She feels the press of his lips against her head and is awash with gratitude for him all over again. "I really love you."

"I love you, too, Swan." She can hear the smile in his voice. "And we'll figure this next chapter out. The one that includes two versions of you son and a granddaughter that's already nine."

She laughs at that. Can't help it. Lucy is precious and Emma loves her already, but this day has been just… so weird. And so much on her emotions. And…

She pulls back so she can look at him. "I was hoping our next chapter would include a baby." She admits. The pain of the last year hasn't gone anywhere. She loves her life with Killian, but they've been trying so hard for a baby and each month, it hurts a little more.

"Come on, love. What have I been telling you? This isn't the end. There will be a baby in our future."

"I hope so." She murmurs.

"I believe it." He tells her.

A creak on the stairs alerts them to Henry's incoming presence. He's freshly clothed, but his hair is still wet and his skin slightly pink. "Those things are wonderful. What do you call them again?"

Emma pulls away from Killian to face her son, her face cracked open with a wide grin with the realization that she gets to make all the same jokes with this Henry about modern conveniences that she did with Killian. "A shower."

When he meets them in the kitchen, Emma's arm wraps around his shoulders. She can't stop touching him. Can't quite believe he's real. "Are you hungry?"

"Not yet. I had my fill of the feast that was provided earlier."

He's referring of course to the lunch at Granny's hours ago and it was indeed a feast, but it's going to take Emma some time to reorient to this Henry's way of speech and how he sees the world.

"Well, if you get hungry, just let us know. We'll whip something up. And when I say 'we', I mean Killian." She nods to her husband and watches as he takes her words with a good natured smile. Henry nods at this. It'll take some time for Killian to build a relationship with Henry, but Emma has seen some promising moments already and they both love any version of her son enough to make this work.

They are going to have to figure out the name situation, though. For both Henrys and both Hooks and some of the other doubles from the wish realm that were pulled over.

But that's a problem for tomorrow. For tonight, she has this Henry and Regina has the older Henry and his family set up for the night with her. Somehow, even with all that's happened, she and Regina have fallen right back into their shared responsibility for Henry's well-being, in whatever form it takes now that there are two. Emma just knew that she needed this Henry with her tonight and Regina was prepared to let her have that time to reconnect with him.

"Come on," Emma leads her son into the living room and directs him to the couch. She doesn't have much planned for tonight outside of talking with Henry. Enjoying his company. And he goes along willingly with the memory of how they shared their evenings like this before, as a family in a kingdom far away. This is how they lived and how they will continue live now that they are reunited.

"What do I do next?" He asks her suddenly. Very seriously.

It's been a week and they are all starting to emerge out of the fog of this new expanded life in a Storybrooke. Emma knows his question isn't about their agenda for today. No, he wants to know his place in this strange town-turned-realm-of-all-its-own. And it's a fair question.

"What do you want to do next?"

His gaze sweeps her sheriff's station. "I want to work with you. I want to keep this land safe and maintain the order and peace."

She's reminded of one of her last moments with him in the wish realm, when he was so ready to take up the mantle of knighthood before the reign of king was so unjustly thrust upon him. She swallows roughly. It's still a wonder to her that he doesn't hold any bitter feelings towards her. "I would love that. You can be my deputy."

"Deputy." Henry says softly, trying out the title.

"Deputy Henry Swan-Jones has a nice ring to it." Emma decides, loving this idea more and more. The role suits this Henry perfectly in a way that would just seem bizarre for her older Henry. They are so different and this has held true for every double that carried over from the wish realm, making this transition actually easier for everyone than anticipated. Except for the double names. That, they are still working out, having rejected Alice's idea placing an "N" at the beginning of everyone's name. But a pleasant surprise had been finding this Henry's name in the town census listed as Henry Swan-Jones.

"I just thought…" Regina had shrugged a little, awkwardly, when Emma found it. "I mean, he's both of ours as is the other Henry, but that one is already Henry Mills and this one grew up with you in the wish realm."

Henry beams now at her, seemingly taken with the whole idea. With his new title. "Deputy Swan-Jones." He repeats. "It just might stop people from referring to me as Little Henry."

Emma chuckles at this. "Yeah, it might help. And if it's any consolation, I don't think Henry Mills likes being called Big Henry, either."

"So when do we begin?" He asks. Eager. Ready. Courageous. Oh, she loves this boy. Who would've thought that so much good could come out of a wish intended to destroy her? Regina was right, it wasn't a curse that brought the realms together. It was a blessing. And the story might not be perfect and they've all experienced pain as a result, but this life she finds herself in - this Happy Middle that she's steadily submerged in - it's given her more than she ever thought possible. And maybe, as Killian keeps reminding her to hope, there could be even more joy in store for them.

Emma sidesteps around her desk, digging through one of the drawers until she finds a deputy badge, long forgotten. "We should have a ceremony for this or something. And we will." She moves towards Henry and holds the lapel of his jacket in her hand, pinning the badge rather unceremoniously to it. There's time for the pomp and circumstance later. "But we can begin right now."

Thoughts?

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