Resolution Chapter 2
On the ride back home Henry glanced back at the twins. Out like lights. Mom had entertained them with some magic lights play before the meeting. It was like the laser light and their cat. He grinned. Wore them out so that they slept through the meeting, and even through the process of getting them from the bedroom to the car seats. Magic, oh yeah, he meant to tell Violet about the twins sensing grandpa's magic yesterday... "Violet?"
"Hmm?" She answered slightly preoccupied, paying attention to her driving.
"Yesterday, when grandpa made the magic earthquake, Zita and Dillion-"
"Sensed it?"
"How'd you guess?"
"Rebecka told me when I brought them in for their vaccinations last time; their magic potential was active. They're so young though it's just receptive right now."
"You didn't tell me."
"Sorry. Since Rebecka said they're just receptive. I forgot all about it until just now."
"Okay." Henry was slightly annoyed. He'd felt guilty about forgetting to tell her for a day. She'd found out almost a year ago and forgotten. So they'd had an active potential since they were eighteen months. Maybe it wasn't a big deal she'd forgotten. This was the first time they'd shown it, and they were just receptive. Wonder if mom sensed it when she was playing with the twins. Mom said when she taught the magic class that most high level magic users can sense other strong magic users. Zita and Dillon likely would be high level magic users, but right now their magic ability was passive- sensing magic but not able to use it. That must have made mom's light show game extra exciting to them, he smiled.
"So, you think we should tell Regina and Robin?"
"Yeah, mom and Robin are supposed to have a soul bond with them, so of all the grandparents they need to know. Plus they're experienced with raising kids with magic."
Violet laughed. "Remember when Hope figured out how to use her magic to cheat on that computer game she and Roland were playing?"
Henry grinned. "Robin had to explain to a six year old about how being good and living by a code means not cheating, including with her magic. She didn't realize her fingers were glowing from using magic and everyone could see she'd cheated."
"Roland misused his some too."
"Yep, Robin hadn't caught it, but mom did. He wasn't really that conscious he was doing it. He was using his charisma to try to get things. When mom talked to him about it he was embarrassed and worried Robin would be disappointed in him. Mom and Robin taught him how to use it the right way. And look at how popular he is. That's not misusing the power, it's just his charisma. There's something with Eimi, Douglas and him too."
"I noticed that too, and we're both low level. So you think they could be some kind of true love trio or something?"
"Yeah. Remember Fionn telling us about his aunt? How she had a husband and a partner and the three were all kind of bonded to each other?"
"Yeah."
"I think the same thing is going on with Roland, Eimi and Douglas."
When they got home Violet carried in Zita while Henry carried in Dillon. They didn't look much like twins size wise. Zita was tiny and Dillon was large. Zita was tenth percentile for her age, while Dillon was ninetieth. Zita was likely going to be small like Hank said the women on his side of the family had been. Hank was short too, even shorter than Mr. Gold. Dillon was probably going to be tall like Grandpa David. Dillon was over four inches taller and ten pounds heavier than Zita. But in hair and features it was obvious they were siblings, both had nearly the same shade of dark brown hair and eyes.
Zita, the lighter sleeper of the twins, woke up as Violet walked up the steps carrying her. "Down, Mama" she squirmed slightly.
"As soon as we get inside wiggle worm."
Zita giggled and squirmed more.
Henry unlocked the door with his free hand. Dillon finally woke up from the light jostling he got as Henry opened the door. He began to squirm too "Down. Want Down."
Violet and Henry let the kids loose once Violet locked the door. They promptly ran the circle around the staircase to the second floor, shrieking, chasing each other.
That was their safe spot to run, so Violet and Henry let the twins play while they went into the living room. Henry decided to check if he could find anything more online about what his grandfather was doing, and Violet turned a kid's movie, to help them wind back down so they could all get to bed soon. The music from the movie opener soon brought Zita and Dillon into the room.
They were almost two and a half now. Violet had literally conceived the twins the first week he had started teaching. The two little souls had waited as they promised, but the first moment they were able to come into this world, they did. It had worked out well, though. They were born a few days after the school's summer break had started. Violet took maternity leave, and he was home as well most days. For their first three months. During that time, when the babies were asleep, he started working on what might be a lifelong project- reading and organizing the storybooks. Their house was the old apprentice's home with the "secret " room storing the storybooks. It had been the logical choice. So many people had pitched in to help them make a down payment on the house it was half paid for when moved in, even his paternal grandfather. Mr. Gold had said he owed it to his grandson, no strings attached. Belle said it was probably what was left of his conscious wanting to make up for what he'd done. Henry agreed; there was still a trace of humanity left in his grandfather's soul.
Regina and Robin had insisted they would watch the babies during work hours or any time they needed a night out for the rest of their first year. Henry had thought it would mostly be his mom in the mayor's office, due to the nature of Robin's job, but he wanted to watch them in the ranger's station just as much. Robin made it "paperwork days" so he could stay in the office. Mom teased him that the paperwork from the rangers' office had never been so promptly done.
Once the twins turned two, they became much more active. Mom wanted to keep watching them, but Robin reminded her of what had happened with Hope and Grace. Mom grudgingly gave in. But said she still wanted Henry to stop by with them on the way home, at least once a week. He made sure it was twice a week, and knowing Robin, even though he hadn't "presumed" to ask, he made sure to stop by the ranger's station once a week with Zita and Dillon. Henry also knew they both spent their lunch hour together with the twins once a week. Mom and Robin were very enthusiastic grandparents. He knew it wasn't just because of the bond they automatically had with the twins, it was just their nature.
The next evening Regina called Henry. "Well, I knew it was coming. Hope is upset about something that happened in school and refuses to tell me or Robin. She wants to talk to you."
"Over the phone?"
"No. She doesn't want us to hear. Not even Grace can get anything out of her, and now Grace is upset because she thinks Hope is mad at her about something. Which made Hope upset, she told Grace it wasn't her, but not in the nicest way. Grace is crying in the girl's bedroom, and Hope is giving us the sullen silent treatment in the living room."
"Okay, let me tell Violet what's going on and I'll be right over."
Regina hadn't added Hope had also screamed at Roland to leave her alone as soon as she walked in the door. Regina had picked both girls up. Hope had been subdued but otherwise normal on the drive home, but had snapped as soon as she saw her brother. That had set off the rest of the fireworks this evening.
As soon as Henry got the car on the road toward his house Hope said angrily "Did you know?"
Henry knew "about what?" that he almost said, would just make her more upset, so calmly he asked "What awful thing did you find out today?"
"You know how mama said, that even though we didn't grow in her belly like Grace she loved us all equally?"
"Yeah." Henry smiled, remembering that moment, how she made sure she didn't hide from Hope that she had a different birth mother. Putting the kindest spin possible on Hope's conception.
"You know how she said Roland and my birth moms had died when we were real tiny? Roland remembered his but I was just a baby when my birth mom died?"
"Yeah." Henry had a sinking suspicion he knew where this was going...
"Mom and Dad didn't tell me how I came to be born!" Hope cried in angered anguish.
"What did you hear?"
"Phillip told me! I hate him! He said my birth mom was mom's older sister and she raped my daddy so she'd have a baby because she hated mom! Phillip said he bet I'd be just like my birth mom Zelena- the wicked witch!"
Inwardly Henry groaned. Phillip Junior. Aurora and Phillip's son. Of course it would be him. The kid was a spoiled brat and a bully. Demanded the other kids in his class call him Phillip the Second, like he was a king. Neal was terrified of him. Phillip and Hope had fought numerous times, usually just words, but Henry knew there had been one physical fight, which he heard Hope had won. Probably why there likely hadn't been more of them. Phillip knew he couldn't bully Hope physically, and Hope wasn't as much a fighter as Grace was. But Hope could be sensitive, and Phillip had struck at her most vulnerable point today.
"No, you won't be like Zelena. You're nothing like her." Looked nothing like her either. Eyes still the same color as Robin's, hair color like her Aunt Rowena, and that kinky curly hair from who knows where. Roland had hair like that, but he'd got that from Marion's side. Zelena and Cora's hair were wavy as was Rowena and all three of her kids, although Roberta's was straighter and brown like Robin's. Mom's hair got curly like Hope's when it was really humid, but she got that from her father's side. Mom used to try to always keep it "tamed", but once they saw how curly Hope's hair was, Mom sometimes let hers show. Henry realized now that was so Hope would see other people in her family had that curly hair. He wondered if that was why Roland wore his hair long enough his curls showed too. The two squabbled like "normal siblings" according to Archie, but Roland could also be deeply protective of both Hope and Grace.
"You knew her?" Hope said, calming.
"Yeah. Zelena got better near the end. She did try to be a mom to you, as much as she could. She had a lot more problems staying good than mom though, but she never consciously tried to hurt you. I think she really wanted to have a kid, she just didn't know the right way to do it. Plus she was psychotically jealous that Cora abandoned her as a baby and raised our mom."
"But Grandma Cora was terrible to mom."
"That's what mom didn't understand either, Zelena was jealous of being physically and mentally abused by their own mother? It' doesn't make sense to me either."
"Yeah, me either. But my birth mom really did that to daddy?"
"Yeah, sorry. It was rough for Roland when he found out too. " Back then Henry had kind of thought it was a mistake to wipe Roland's memories of the weeks "Marlena" was around into his subconscious. But Mom and Robin were both really traumatized by what Zelena had done and just wanted to protect Roland. So he hadn't said anything. As a father, he now understood their impulse. When Roland was around twelve he started having nightmares that mom and Robin knew came from his subconscious memories of that time. They had to let him have those memories back. He was angry at mom and Robin for a couple of weeks. But he and Archie talked to Roland and got him to understand why. Everyone was relieved that he hadn't been angry at Hope. Roland had said something more perceptive than he probably would have at Roland's age. "Hope can't help who her birth mom was; just like mom can't help Grandma Cora was her mom." Roland had never met Grandma Cora, and Henry had just that time she'd been in Storybrooke, before Grandma Snow killed her with that spell candle. But mom had talked some about her in the family therapy session with Archie, and some of it was in the storybook too.
"How did my birth mom-"
Henry could guess Hope's question "Zelena did it by a magical glamour. She pretended to be Roland's birth mom brought back by time travel."
Hope's eyes widened in shock. "Does Roland hate me?"
"No. He knows you were an innocent victim, just like him."
"But we fight all the time."
"That's because you're siblings. If you and Grace were further apart I bet you'd squabble all the time too."
"But you and Roland didn't fight."
"That's because there were too many years between us; plus we'd both been only kids. I thought it was great having a little brother, and little sisters too." Henry smiled.
"And Roland having a big brother."
"Oh he adored both you and Grace too when you were babies."
"Really?"
"Yep. You know how you were with Cedric when he was a baby?"
"Yeah, she grinned. "Or like being Aunt Hope to Zita and Dillon now."
"Exactly."
"Will Mama and Daddy be mad at me for acting bad?"
"No. Mom's worried she failed you somehow, just like she messed up with me, briefly."
"What happened?"
"Mom hid that I was adopted and about her past as the Evil Queen. Of course I acted like the world's worst brat when I found out."
"Ooh."
"You, that was nothing. You were probably right to ask me first. You know how Mom blames herself for everything that goes wrong. "
"And Daddy gets all sad Mommy is doing that."
"Until they work it out."
"Yeah."
"Ready to go back home?"
"Uh huh."
Henry turned the car around at the next intersection. "Do you want me to talk to Mom and Robin or do you want to?"
Henry glanced over and grinned when he saw she was biting her lip the same way mom did when she was uncertain. Hope's birth mom might have been Zelena, but she was Regina Mill's daughter in every other way.
"I don't want to get mom and dad sad."
"Okay, we'll both talk to them. I'll start and you can jump in any time you like."
"Okay."
It'd be okay. Henry could feel it. And that had been a big potential crisis. Probably the worst one for Hope. Well, until she started dating anyways... Then Henry chuckled inwardly. I think I just passed a dad test.
