Title: Home Is Where The Heart Is
Fandom: Once Upon a Time
Characters: Emma Swan, Regina Mills, Henry Mills, Captain Hook, Walsh, Snow White, Prince Charming, Granny, Zelena, Robin Hood
Category: Romance, Angst, Drama, Memory Loss (I mean, it's Once. According to canon it's not possible to write a story without memory loss.) Canon Divergence AU
Rating: M, for swearing and such
Word count: 57,406 (total)
Summary: Emma Swan is no one's fool. She's certainly not going to drink the strange liquid that the creepy Ren Faire Reject that's been stalking she and her son is offering her in the middle of the street - even if they are in front of a police station. So what's a girl to do? Nothing but go home and get engaged to the great guy in her life. And everything is pretty amazing until her son disappears without a trace. Then she has to go track him down in some tiny town in Maine populated by the strangest people she's ever met and a woman her son has unexpectedly bonded with.
Spoilers/Timeline: For Season 3, beginning with "Going Home"
Author's Note: Many thanks to Oparu for the beta and Race for the suggestions. This fic is better because of them.

Check back tomorrow! I'm trying for daily updates. :D

The streets were dark and still wet from some earlier rainfall. The yellow-orange light of the street lamps threw jagged reflections and even longer shadows. There were no cars on the road and the streets were deserted - but that wasn't unusual for Storybrooke on any given night after nine o'clock. Still, Henry kept to the shadows, glancing over his shoulder more than once or twice, as he hurried on. There was a dark ominous feeling hanging over the whole town and until he knew why he would be careful. It was what his mom would have told him to do.

Henry shrugged his backpack further up on his shoulders and scurried on faster, trying not to think about his mom - either of them. Emma was going to kill him - really kill him - and his other mom, his mama, he couldn't even let himself think about her. He didn't know if she was really here. The town was back, but... Well Henry was pretty certain he was the thing she loved most. How could she bring the town back then? His chest tightened. He swallowed hard and ducked his head as he turned into the alley that would take him behind Granny's. There was always the possibility that his mom had found someone else to love.

A hair raising shriek, somewhere between nails on a chalk board and the hunting cry of a bird of prey, rent the air out of nowhere. Henry tried to throw himself against the back wall of Granny's but tripped and fell. Gravel bit into his hands and his knee throbbed painfully but Henry didn't move for several long moments. His heart hammered in his chest and when it was clear nothing else was going to happen, he let his head drop to rest against the damp earth while he caught his breath. It took him a moment but when he had his breathing under control again he pushed himself up to his knees and dusted his hands off.

There was a tear in his jeans at one knee and when he pulled the material back he could see the bloody gash beneath. It was small, not nearly as bad as he'd gotten the first time he'd tried to ride a bike. He'd been begging his mom for weeks and weeks to teach him but she had kept refusing, insisting that he was too small and it was too dangerous for him. He had listened and listened until he couldn't anymore, goaded on by the taunts of his classmates and his own desire to feel the wind in his face, the way people seemed to almost float along on them until they could touch anything. (Okay, so maybe he'd had a brief obsession with E.T. after the first time he'd seen it, making his mom play it for him over and over again until the VHS had worn out.)

Then, one day at the park he couldn't stand it any longer. He had snatched up a temporarily abandoned bike and climbed aboard it. It had been to big for him after all and he'd wobbled back and forth from one leg to another after he pushed off, barely catching himself in time to keep it upright. He was so focused on not falling over, on proving his mom wrong that he hadn't been paying attention to what was in front of him. The instant he'd gone over the top of the hill, the bike had picked up speed. He had jerked his feet up as grass and bushes yanked at them and for one shining instant everything was perfect. It really had felt like flying and Henry was grinning bigger than he had ever grinned in his life. Then the front wheel wobbled, yanked away from the death grip he had on it, and the bicycle caught the edge of a park bench. Henry had gone flying but not before he had managed to catch his side on the back of the bench. He hit the ground hard and lay there stunned.

"HENRY!" His mother's cry had made his blood run cold. He had never heard anything like it from her before. It startled him so much he hadn't known what to do, laying there until she had called for him again. "Henry." That time her cry had been a broken cry that had jerked him upright.

"Mom." It came out weaker than he had intended and his voice had broken mid-word. His knee hadn't hurt until he moved it. "Ah," he gasped clutching at it. Sticky red blood seeped out from beneath his fingers and Henry felt a little wild as his mom finally caught up with him and dropped down beside him.

"Henry," Regina had said, her voice no nonsense. "Let me see it."

"Mom-" He wanted to plead his case to explain why he needed to do it - why he needed to do it again - but the look on her face stopped him without another word and he yanked his hands back.

She had taken one look and given a quick shake of her head, the line of her lips growing even thinner. "Come on." She had stood, ignoring the blood on her hands and the mud on her skirt and bent to scoop him up. As small as he had been, it had still been some time since his mom had picked him up and carried him anywhere. Henry had been embarrassed and squirmed in her arms the whole time. Regina hadn't admonished him for it or even mentioned him as she carried him to the hospital, having walked to the park from home a few hours earlier. She hadn't even let him go when Sheriff Graham had approached them and offered to take him. In the end, the gash on his leg had needed five stitches and he had never ridden a bike again: in Storybrooke. In the city, he had been a twelve year old boy that was strangely terrible at riding bikes. Emma had teased him about it mercilessly.

He had gotten better though. He would have to tell his mom, if she was here. If he could find her before whatever that was... He started off again, moving at a quicker pace, sticking even more closely to the shadows this time. No one knew he was here and if he was grabbed, well, no one would be coming for him either. Henry didn't walk down Mifflin street. As the Mayor, his mom had been in charge of Storybrooke's maintenance and infrastructure and she had made certain that the street that led to the Mayor's mansion was so well lit it was almost like walking in daylight. Instead, Henry cut through backyards, ducking clotheslines and hopping over fences until he reached his destination.

In this world, at this time, there was no key in his pocket that would let him in. He contemplated briefly knocking on the back door but at this time of night there was no way his mom would hear him if she was in her bedroom on the second story or even if she was in her study. There was nothing for it but to go to the front door and ring the bell.

At the edge of the shadows, Henry took a deep breath and ran for it, pounding up the steps the way his mom had always told him not to, calling after him that he would break his neck one day. Knocking on the door hard enough to make his knuckles sting and punching the doorbell repeatedly, he kept throwing anxious looks back out at the street, knowing that any second the beast he had heard would show up to check out all the noise he was making. "C'mon, c'mon," Henry mumbled under his breath. She had to be here. She just had to.

"Go away!" The sudden sharp command made Henry jump and grin. He pounded harder in response. She was here. His mom was really here.

The door swung open without the warning sound of any locks being undone and Henry stumbled forward, almost falling on his knees again. He caught himself on the door jamb just in time.

"What do you..." His mom's sharp voice trailed off as he raised his head, as she had a chance to see him. "Henry?" Her voice cracked over his name.

Henry took an involuntary step back as he straightened. He had never seen his mom like this before. Her hair was disheveled and sticking up on one side in the back. Her blouse was coming out of the waist of her skirt and mascara was smeared across one cheek beneath her eye. Eyes that he was looking almost directly into as she stood barefooted in front of him. "Mom?" He couldn't help the worry and confusion that flooded through him. Had something happened to her? What was wrong?

"No," she said sharply, casting her hand out at him in a warding gesture. She stumbled, unsteady on her feet, as it was her turn to take a step back. "You're not him. You're not real. You can't be him."

Henry reached out on instinct to steady her. Regina yanked her hand back before he could touch her, almost losing her balance again. "Sorry," Henry said, holding his hands up in a gesture of surrender. "Mom-"

Regina didn't cut him off but took a step forward and reached out to touch his cheek. Two fingers brushed the side of his cheek and Henry fought the urge to lean into her touch. His mom looked as if one motion on his part would startle her and send her stumbling away again. Her thumb stroked over his cheek and her eyes fell closed. She stood that way in silence for a long moment before she drew herself up.

"If you're not really my son, you should run. I will flay the skin from your body slowly," she breathed the words out like a caress. "I will break every bone in your body and then pull them out one at a time. And then, before you have a chance to die, I will crush your heart in your chest. Run!"

Henry jerked at the sharp command of her voice, a leaden sensation at the bottom of his stomach at the all too valid threat in her words, and took a step forward. He wrapped his arms around her waist and laid his head on her shoulder. "It's me, Mom."

"Henry?" Her voice was the faintest breath of hope, too fragile to be spoken any louder.

"Yeah."

Her arms wrapped around him in return, clutching him to her so tightly that he could barely breathe as she held him close and showed no signs of letting him go any time soon.